Boku Dake Ga Inai Machi The butterfly Effect and Confusion
by TiberianSun371Alexw
Summary: Satoru makes changes to the past. Some of them only cause minor changes, but others can snowball. Will the price of saving his 2 classmates be 15 years loss of his life, or 3 years of confusion?
1. Somatō The Longest Revival

Somatō The Longest Revival

Fujinuma Satoru walked dejectedly into a subway station. He had been working with a publisher for some time, but after several submissions, the publisher's representative still did not like Satoru's work.

"If you don't dig deeper, the readers will not be able to see you in the work" said the representative. Satoru had been turned down yet again. Once he was back home he stared at the ceiling and occasionally glanced at the writing utensils and drafts on his desk. "I'm scared to get to the heart of my own mind" Satoru thought. The news reported talked about the upcoming 2006 World Cup being held in Germany.

The next day Satoru went off to his day job, Osai Pizza. Delivering pizza was good to keep his body form going stale and he needed a job to live by. Once he got to work he put on the uniform. It was a red coat which had an extended body component going farther down than normal. There was a yellow line chest level that extended around the coat. On the front left above the stripe was an Osai Pizza emblem. On the back in yellow letters read "Osai Pizza" Completing the uniform was a red helmet and any black pants the employee brought to work.

Fujinuma Satoru grabbed another pizza box to bring to his motorcycle. He already knew the route and all seven deliveries were on the same block. "I'm going out" said Satoru. The manager, a dark haired man in the Osai Pizza red uniform appearing to be in his 30s waved him bye.

"Katagiri is going out on a delivery too." said Fujinuma Satoru's co-worker. "Oh, Fujinuma-san, don't eat any pizza on the way." Katagiri Airi was a pale skinned high school student with long brown hair working at Osai Pizza. Satoru put the last pizza in the cargo compartment and shut it while giving an automatic reply.

"That girl says the same thing to me every time. In fact it's the only thing she says to me. It's not like she has any special feelings for me. Weird girl…" thought Satoru. Katagiri-kun might be a young pretty cute girl but "Well, I'm not interested in high school girls." A blue butterfly passed by his field of vision.

Satoru grumbled as he passed the same intersection that he crossed earlier. Satoru had an experience he called "Revival." In pop culture references, a Groundhog Day Loop. Satoru would be thrown back in time being the only to remember anything. It was already triggered when something bad was about to happen. He continued driving while watching intensely. "It happened again. Where is it? What seems out of place?" thought Satoru. He scanned the streets and saw elementary school children. None of them seemed in immediate danger.

Satoru continued on for three minutes. The blue butterfly passed him again. Once again, Satoru repeated the experience of crossing an intersection. This "Revival"… was it a phenomenon exclusive to him or a curse for him? It was as if a higher will was trying to possess his body and say "stop it," but it could not and only force him to do it on his own will (to some extent). These repeats are usually 1-5 minutes long, but occasionally it was an hour, a few times sent him to the beginning of the day, and three times he was sent back seven days' worth of time. All Satoru knows is that the bad thing he has to prevent would happen very shortly after the point it should have happened without his intervention. One of them took 35 days for him to figure out what he was trying to prevent because he went away from the bad event in the first few tries. Since it was the first time he was forced to go back to the beginning of the day he didn't realize he was near the problem the first time he saw the blue butterfly. In other words Satoru spent a whole month to save a drunken stranger from breaking his arm. Satoru got a bruise for his trouble thanks the weight of an adult landing on a middle school student at moderate speed.

Going through the second "Revival" Satoru looked at the people he was now passing for the third time. Was it the truck? It looked like the driver on the opposite side had run a red light. If he ran another light, perhaps he might kill someone. The truck and threw cars on the right side of him passed by. Satoru turned into the oncoming traffic and tried to make a 180 turn. He ran into a car and lost consciousness, possibly suffering lethal trauma. Satoru thought he might have seen the butterfly.

For the third time, Satoru passed by the same intersection. This time he tired moving to the oncoming traffic and started honking. The truck passed by him and full speed. Satoru tried to start his motor bike and catch up. He yelled trying to get the driver's attention. After some time, they got close to the same intersection and the blue butterfly passed by Satoru's vision again.

Satoru once again went back in time a few minutes. He was getting annoyed. Perhaps the bad event was not related to the truck. But then again, perhaps it was. Did the brake lights of the truck come on? Or maybe the driver was about to run another red light. The truck passed by his right. Satoru made his decision.

Satoru went onto the oncoming traffic to his right and turned around, trying to catch up to the truck. He called out to the driver. Maybe since he was only meters away any moving in the same direction instead of head on the driver could hear. Satoru looked into the truck's side mirror and realized that the driver had fallen asleep. The driver would certainly run another red flight. Satoru realized yes, the truck was going to cause the event he had to prevent. He tried to close the distance. Maybe if he was closer he could wake the driver up.

To their left, Katagiri Airi watched the chase go on. "Fujinuma? What are you doing?"

Satoru realized they were coming up to the same intersection that began the loops. If only he had stayed put on the first "Revival," he would have been able to figure out the probable cause of this "Revival" series. A schoolboy waving a crossing flag started crossing the intersection. Unfortunately, no flag or red light was going to stop a dead driver. Satoru continued to bang on the door. "I knew I shouldn't have gotten involved. But…" thought Satoru. He thought about an actor who played his favorite superhero in his youth, patting his past self's head. This thought triggered strength his subconscious insisted on keeping in reserve. He reached into the truck cab and pullet the driver's arm.

The truck turned and avoided the boy. Satoru managed a weak grin and realized he had completed his mission. He smiled and looked at the truck for 15 seconds. Unfortunately, while the truck was on the left side of the new road, Satoru was heading into oncoming traffic. A horn sounded and Satoru turn to see his impending doom. SPLAT. No revival undid this particular collision.

Satoru saw a vision of his past. H was crying in front of his mother. Then his childhood friends were playing a ball game. Another he was simply walking home. "Oh is this the thing where my life flashes before my eyes?" Satoru thought. He knew nothing good came from intervening with other people. He saw a girl in the park.

Satoru's opened his eyes. Assuming the room he was in was built with a rectangular shape and was level to the ground, it appeared as if he was lying down. "Hi Fujinuma-san. You were out for 2 days" called a familiar voice.

Satoru saw turned left and saw a brown haired girl in what appeared to be the sky blue short sleeved undershirt of a blazer uniform-like. A red bow circled the collar. There was a medium skirt with a grid pattern that nearly reached her knees. As the "I just got up and I'm too tired to think" disorientation wore off, Satoru recognized his younger coworker. "Katagiri-kun?"

"Do you know who you are and why you're here?"

"Fujinuma Satoru, 29 years old. I was chasing a truck and I got into an accident" said Satoru. It looked like a hospital room now that he had time to think about it.

Katagiri-kun breathed a sigh of relief. She explained the collision and the doctor's assessment. Apparently, he wasn't too hurt visibly and his bones were not broken. "Do you want me to call someone? A friend or girlfriend?" asked Katagiri Airi.

"There's nobody I want to bother telling" said Satoru.

Katagiri Airi looked at Satoru with an annoyed look. She took out her right and used 2 figures to make a scissors. She then started a cutting motion. "Snip-snip" she said.

"What's that? A generation Y joke" asked Satoru.

"It's like you're covered in some sort of membrane. Fujinuma-san doesn't seem to be the type of person that opens up to other people" said Katagiri as she put away the scissor hand. "You never laugh either. But I do see you in a new light."

"What do you mean?" inquired Satoru.

"You saved a kid's life, right? I was there" said Katagiri-kun. She explained why Satoru's attempts at altering the driver were futile due to a heart attack and was impressed he noticed the danger. Katagiri also filled him in on the aftermath. "After I explained everything to the manager, he said 'tell him not to worry about the bike or the car he hit, just get better and come back to work." She moved her hands from her lap to putting the elbows on Satoru's hospital bed and using her hand to rest her chin.

"Thanks" said Satoru, cracking a smile. He was already going to have some trouble making ends meet even if he turned the heat to 13 degrees when the winter came. Being responsible for the bike would be a total disaster.

"You smiled for a second there" said Katagiri, smiling herself.

"Katagiri-kun, why do you work there?" asked Satoru.

"I'm surprised you got to the heart of it. I have a dream" said Katagiri.

"I see" replied Satoru.

"That's all you're going to ask me!?' demanded Katagiri Airi.

Satoru thought about one of his failed manga strips from three years before. In light of what happened, he's not regretting telling more people about his own dream. "When you tell other people about your dream, don't you think 'what if it doesn't happen for me'? You had high hopes for yourself and they all know you failed?"

"I'm not especially embarrassed to talk about it. I feel like if you say the words over and over, it will actually happen down the line" said Katagiri.

Satoru opened his eyes wider. "Those words… for some reason hey resonate with me" he thought.

"But I'm not going to tell you what it is Fujinuma-san. It's not like we are close or anything" said Katagiri-kun as she stood up to leave. Taken out of context, the last statement was spoken in the tone of a Tsundere with a crush, but in this case the words were accurate and the tone, paralanguage, and any nonverbal cues were wrong. "I'll tell the nurse you're up and then I'm going home. Bye-bye" she said.

"Weird girl" thought Satoru. Hours later he was discharged from the hospital. He put on his work uniform, still there waiting for him, and got into a taxi. "Revival" brings him usually from 1-5 minutes where everything is the same as before, although periods can be longer. It was as if someone came along and put Satoru there with the order "Prevent it!" In most cases, negative incidents come out even, but sometimes it turns negative for him. In this case he got hospitalized.

Thanks to Japan's nationalized healthcare insurance for citizens, the costs would not break Satoru's bank account unlike third world countries, South Africa, China, the Middle East, or America. In case you are wondering, no, those don't overlap. Not even the first two, despite the poverty. And America's health care system would be a conservative version of Japan's if Richard Nixon got his way with "National Healthcare Strategy" and Ted Kennedy didn't try to get a better deal by being uncompromising. Assuming people spend even 30% of their health care savings on consumer goods, Nixon's plan would not even increase the net deficit.

Satoru walked up to his apartment. He heard the frying pan. The door was unlocked. An hour glass figured woman with short black hair was over the stove. "Mom…" said Satoru.

"I went to the hospital, but you were still sleeping which was boring so I came here" said Fujinuma Sachiko. "I'm glad you're fine. I'm surprised given that they said it was a head on collision. I'm going to stay with you for a while."

Satoru was surprised and argued with his mother about her staying over, such as his only futon or practicality. But in the end, she had a point and didn't want to be reimbursed with the hospital bill. She decided to go sightseeing since she was going to get tired of seeing his face every day, even though she hadn't seen him for a whole day yet. Despite being her son, Satoru couldn't believe Sachiko was 52 years old. She never changed with time. Sometimes he wondered if she was a Yokai. After they finished Sachiko's meal, they started getting ready for the night. Sachiko watched the news.

"The elementary first year who went missing yesterday evening was found on Yokohama" said the anchorman.

"Satoru, do you remember? What happened when you were a 5th year in grade school? Your memories are probably hazy. We tired ot make you forget. Your life was in danger" pondered Sachiko.

That night in his sleeping bag, Satoru tried to remember. Some of his classmates went missing. Years ago he played with guy called Yuuki. It wasn't his real name, but the kids, particularly Satoru who was the closest, often called him that because he'd often sy "Yuuki Yuuki/courage" Six months after the disappearances, they found the serial kidnapper and murderer, Shiratori Jun, or as Satoru called him Yuuki.

The next day, Satoru went back to the hospital. An officer wanted to interrogate him about the incident. After all, for anyone not paying attention until the swerve, it just looked like he reached into a truck, turned it, and then crashed himself. The kid might be grateful, but would not know this was intended to save him since he didn't see the truck until the last moment. Thanks to Katagiri-kun, he was labeled a hero. No doubt Satoru would be scrutinized more if it wasn't for her. Instead they were praising his eyesight and judgement, although still curious. "I saw the truck moving strangely and running through a red light from faraway"

"Do you have a strong attention to detail since you draw manga?" said the officer.

"Probably" said Satoru. He just wanted to leave. After some time he got his wish and headed off to Osai Pizza. Satoru told the manager he was going to get back to work the next week. After that Satoru wanted to get some fresh air.

Sometime later Katagiri caught up to Satoru. He was surprised her shift was over. "You know the manager says you're as useful as three full time employees. He hopes to see you back soon" They walked by an old abandoned building. Katagiri said she thought when it was maintained, it looked nice and retro. The newer things only looked functional and lacked aesthetics.

Satoru groaned as the blue butterfly came by his vision. After a few false tries, he concluded that it had something to do with the building. He walked past the fence. "I wonder what they are going to build here… huh? Where are you going Fujinuma-san?" asked Katagiri. She followed him in.

Satoru scaled the building with his eyes darting around looking for the trouble. He called out. Soon he found some backpacks. They must be kids with a hideout. Satoru wondered if calling out backfired. Suddenly, Satoru saw a figure falling through the elevator shaft. That must be what he needs to prevent. He rushed downward, but knew he could not outrun a falling kid and even if he could, it's not the fall that kills you; it's usually the loss of all momentum on hitting the ground.

Katagiri caught the falling boy three stories Satoru, knees bent to try to lengthen the impact. She caught the boy with nothing more than bruising. Unfortunately, the grab took her off balance. Another three stories to the ground would be fairly painful. Katagiri tried her best to use her weight and floor friction to stabilize herself, but every few seconds another millimeter was slipped. Any movement to get away from the shaft would fail and they would fall.

Satoru Fujinuma grabbed Katagiri around the hip and hauled the combined mass. It was difficult as he wasn't the most muscular person and the kid still over the shaft hole, none of him was above the safety of the floor. After several scary moments, Satoru hauled all of them out.

The kids had explained that they used this location as a secret base of sorts. "I'll keep this a secret, but don't pick such a dangerous place for a base like this again, ok?" said Katagiri. They walked away. "Wow, Airi's hands are still numb and shaky" continued Katagiri Airi. She hadn't spoken of herself in the third person with him before. Satoru wondered if that meant they were close(er).

"What do you mean you liked the look of the building" asked Satoru. He was trying to forget about Katagiri nearly falling into the shaft.

"Did you read my mind?" said Katagiri. He also forgot part of the conversation was from an obsolete loop. "I thought I had mentioned about the future building, not the condemned one." The two of them walked past several shops and eateries. Over three hours the alternated between talking and watching the scenery. Both of them went to Sendai as tourists in the past three years before, with a week of overlap. They talked about their (obviously separate and parallel) experiences there, the danger of Japan overfishing the famed Bluefin Tuna, and prettiness of some of the rural Shinto shires.

"Fujinuma-san, what do you do in your spare time" said Katagiri.

"I go out to arcades or sometimes sightseeing. Going out to the country obviously can't be done in a day trip. There are seven different restaurants I used to frequent for dinner. A month ago I realized Osai paid as much as it did three years ago but everything was more expensive. Since then, I only ever leave the house once a week for recreation, even if it is as simple as an arcade. I watch the TV more often and play some computer games. The Wi-Fi for apartment complex is of poor bandwidth and not available. To be honest though, even before I checked the money, I spent 75% of my free time doing the same thing: trying to pursue my dreams. That is why I took a part time job" said Satoru.

"So that's how your life goes outside your obligations. The week before, Wednesday I listened to music from my CDs all evening. Friday I went over to Misaka Hinata-kun's house with another friend. We had a talk and used her GameCube. I'm a bit jealous she can afford to get something she wants even if it's something she uses to enjoy herself less than once a month. She invited me to an Okinawa trip this July. Saturday I watched a baseball game on TV. Our starting pitcher lasted 12 innings without giving a single run. After a 15 inning game, we won 3 to 0. Extra innings is always nervous as a visiting team."

There was a man screaming from behind them. Satoru scanned the immediate area and quickly found out the place had a lot less people than most of the city. His eyes turned to a long alley. "He threatened me with a knife and took my wallet!" shouted a blond man, bruised and prone but oddly not bleeding.

A burly looking man carrying a large sack and an outrageously long blade, who clearly left that alley charged, straight at Satoru and Katagiri. How on earth did someone conceal a 30 cm blade in the middle of an urban area? Satoru dodged the blade and made a jabbing motion to force the mugger to release his knife grip. In less than a tenth of a second, the knife was released, but that did not change the mugger's forward momentum. Katagiri-kun punched the man in his center of mass with little effect because brute force center of mass strikes works better against a smaller or exhausted opponent. Satoru fell down and the mugger smashed his hip to the asphalt, breaking the hip. Satoru screamed in pain and collapsed. He saw a blue butterfly passing his field of vision again. "Any second now" he thought.

Katagiri tried a groin kick, but those are harder to land than movies suggest and only caused her to lose her footing on the uneven pavement that clearly suffered too much littering. The mugger grabbed Katagiri's purse and took off with his added loot. His initial interest was getting away with the wallet. He had no intention of fighting and was content with new loot. This process took place in 15 seconds before "Revival" kicked in.

Satoru turned into the alley. The mugger was wielding the blade and the victim had his hands high in the air. Satoru knew this was the event he had to prevent. Now closer to the mugger, Satoru and Katagiri behind him could hear the threats being made. Satoru started a charge and prepared to body slam. He made contact. He heard a grunt and the mugger straggled forward.

The mugger then swung his blade in the general motion, making an exaggerated arcing motion. It was easily dodged and the long blade collided with the wall of the narrow alley. Satoru landed a punch that didn't faze the target much. Satoru didn't know much about combat. Satoru knew the technique on how to keep someone pinned to the ground if you are already on top, but he only had one other trick up his sleeve. The mugger moved towards him. Satoru grabbed him and used a hip throw. The mugger fell to the ground.

"Get his legs!" said Satoru. Katagiri punched the mugger's leg hard. After that she threw on her weight. Satoru tightened his grapple on the mugger. The blond victim grabbed the head of the mugger and smashed it against the ground. Unconsciousness was immediate.

The blond man found his wallet in the pocket of the mugger. "Thanks. I didn't think anyone on the streets would hear me with all of the noises of the city. I don't even know how this guy nearly got away with my wallet in broad daylight" said the man.

"Dwindling twilight more like it… If you want to pay us back, just remember us and turn him into the police yourself. I'd rather not spent even more time with the police than I already did" said Satoru.

Fujinuma Satoru and Katagiri Airi walked for five minutes in silence. "A near death experience is followed by a dangerous one. Both of them are in the same day. Mugging isn't as common in Japan as it is on the other side of the ocean. I shouldn't save this since you saved my life hours ago, but are you a Shinigami (death god)?" pondered Katagiri-kun. Satoru froze at the statement, wondering if he should deny it, and then wondering why he wasn't denying it. She smiled and turned around. "Just kidding. See you next week when you come to work!" said Katagiri. She entered a subway station.

"Just when I thought we got closer by the way she talked, she calls me a Shinigami" thought Satoru. He considered going back for the magazines he purchased earlier. Satoru must have left it in the condemned building. Satoru decided against it. He had walked a considerable distance from the building.

Seven days later Fujinuma Satoru and Sachiko (his mom) had finished a shopping trip. Satoru was content. Satoru's mother treated him to an eatery for breakfast. The first day back at work went well. "Well, you can have curry for days" said Sachiko. A familiar blue butterfly fluttered through the parking lot. Satoru knew this translucent image was only visible to him. He sometimes wondered if it was truly living. He scanned for any clues before the new loop.

"Revival?" thought Satoru. He quickly scanned for what was going to happen. There was a boy crying next to dropped ice cream. A man walked with an elementary school girl who appeared to be his niece who was holding another ice cream cone. A teenaged girl nearby gave a child a balloon. She would lose the balloons soon. A truck made a left turn into a red light 100 meters away. "Come on… what is it?" thought Satoru. He wanted to get this over with. "Ma, would you look around?" pleased Satoru. "Don't you have this weird feeling?"

"What are you talking about?" said Sachiko. "Come to think of it, you once told me the same thing a long time ago"

"Did I?" said Satoru.

"It was about a small fire back then" she said. The two of them quickly scanned the area intently looking for something unusual. Sachiko spotted something that seemed odd. It caught her attention long enough for her to focus on the event, but insufficient recognition to consciously say it. Satoru realized he had passed the "Revival" point. Nothing had happened. Did "Revival" misfire?

"Fujinuma-san! … Hey!" called out familiar voice. It was Katagiri Airi. After everyone had greeted each other Katagiri was curious. "Your mother? I thought she was your big sister" said Kataigiri-kun.

"Do you believe in Yokai?" said Satoru.

"I do now" said Katagiri.

Fujinuma Sachiko invited Katagiri over for dinner and curry. "I'm Katagiri Airi! Thanks for the invitation. I'll help you make it too!" Satoru watched mostly in surprise as Katagiri moved forward to talk to his mom. A dash of anxiety and annoyance at his mom came in, but mostly he was still surprised.

At the Fujinuma apartment, Katagiri was amazed at Satoru being an aspiring mangaka (cartoon artist). Satoru knows that being a struggling artist is not really all that great. The curry was ready and the table was set. The curry was delicious, a fact that was quickly commented on by the guest.

"When I saw you, at first I thought you were too young to be his girlfriend, but you're not his girlfriend. Too bad, you're such a great cook" said Sachiko.

"Sorry, we're not dating. How can I put it? To be Fujinuma-san is a…" said Katagiri.

"An ally and senior co-worker" thought Satoru.

"A trusted friend I can respect" completed Katagiri-kun.

The trio finished their dinner. The curry was spicier than Satoru preferred, but he enjoyed it with the others nevertheless. "I'll take you back to the station" said Satoru.

"You're going home already? You should spend the night" said Satoru's mom.

"Katagiri-kun is a high school student" said Satoru.

The two of them got onto Satoru's bike and Satoru started pedaling with Katagiri sitting on the same seat directly behind, facing the side of the bike. It was slow enough she didn't have to hold on. "Thanks for having me over Satoru-san" said Katagiri.

"No problem. Just watch your eyes out for cops" said Satoru.

After moving Katagiri to the train station, Satoru came back. Sachiko was in front of the television smoking. "She's my co-worked. Don't look at her as potential wife material" said Satoru.

"Satoru, this afternoon in the supermarket parking lot… that was an attempted kidnapping" said Sachiko. Satoru responded with incomprehension. "I'm obviously kidding" she finished off.

The next day Satoru went to a magazine store early in the morning. One of them was about a case of serial murders that happened 18 years ago. He looked at the first chronological victim. "Hinazuki Kayo. We weren't exactly friends, but I saw her in the park alone" he thought. He remembered a young girl with brown hair that barely extends beyond her chin. She was in a red shirt and a yellow scarf. It was snowing. Satoru remembered waving a few times but he never tried to greet her. "That was the last time I saw Hinazuki" he thought. After the reveal of the murders, her picture was put in the auditorium for a day with flowers. She was giving a look of boredom and disinterest. Young Satoru thought that leaving her in the park doomed her and he could have saved her. This, the loss of his childhood friend Hiromi, and the police accusing another friend Yuuki combined must have been what Satoru's mother wanted him to forget. He thought about the representative from the publisher telling him the readers needed to see his heart. But he closed it even to himself.

Sachiko was out shopping. She thought about the previous day. The man with the girl just drove away leaving her behind. He seemed shifty and familiar. The man used a rental car. Sachiko browsed through archives. The serial murders attributed to Shiratori Jun 18 years ago matched the same pattern and mode of operation as a recent killed child. Sachiko called an old coworker. She thinks she solved the case. In any event, even if she was wrong, she knew how Shiratori might have turned into a scapegoat. She came back to the apartment.

Someone entered the apartment. A figure came in and stabbed Sachiko in the back. She turned around and saw she was right. She had to call Satoru and warn him not to come home. Sachiko remembered her son pleading to her that it wasn't Yuuki. She failed to reach the phone on the table. "If only I trusted him…" her last thoughts came out.

Satoru finished his shift at Osai Pizza. He was ready to go home, have dinner, and maybe spend the evening drawing. "Hey ask your mom if I can put in a requs.t the curry was good!" said Katagiri-kun.

Satoru left with a wave. He got back to his apartment. He passed by a shifty looking guy and then found his door unlocked. "Mom, this isn't your home in Hokkaido, you can't just leave it unlocked like that" said Satoru. He picked up something off the floor and went into the eating area.

Satoru saw his mother covered in blood. He reached over and tried to stabilize the blood loss. There was a wound in her back and her knee. Satoru touched a knife sticking form her stomach. Satoru screamed. The landlady came in with empty dishes and dropped it seeing Satoru's hands covered in flood. Satoru chased after her and tried to explain. She had gone into another tenant's apartment and grabbed the landline. As she spoke, police cruisers started arriving at the scene. Wait, this was all too fast.

An officer greeted Fujinuma Satoru and his bloody hands. "You're wrong. It wasn't me. I didn't do it" pleaded Satoru almost whispering as he grunted and started to flee. The blue butterfly passed by him once again.

The world spun and Satoru opened his eyes again. He was a bit disoriented and the time of the day changed. Where was he? A dark haired kid in a yellow jacket and a hat that left his slightly spiky dark hair exposed. He wore a backpack. "Yo Satoru, you're going to be late" he said. Satoru didn't recognize him immediately, but knee he knew this person well. Based on the unconscious movement of his legs, he knew he was following the kid to someplace. Satoru looked at his surroundings and realized there was snow. The kid walked past a gate that led into he courtyard of an elementary school and raced towards the door.

The school banners made a mention about Ice Hockey Champions. But it was the year that didn't seem to make too much sense to Satoru. "1988?" asked an ten year old Fujinuma Satoru outloud.

Author's note: Some of deviations form the anime are from me and some of it comes from older scripts of the first episode that didn't make it. I talk more about the older scritps here at /discussions/forum/12/458606248626265914/. (That should me a NON clickable link, if I accidentally made it clickable send me a PM and tell me how to fix it and I'll fix it witihn a week) Most of that steam thread was my ramblings weeks ago. Anyways, have a bit of patience with me, Satoru will take different actions in this fic and will earn himself a different ending.


	2. Tenohira I Decided Not to Lie

Tenohira I Decided Not to Lie

June 2006

"I call this phenomenon 'Revival" I usually go back between one and five minutes where everything is the same as before. It's always right before something bad happens. As a result, I've kept trouble from happening again and again. Unfortunately, while this often results in the event coming natural to me, sometimes a negative result happens" thought Fujinuma Satoru as he lied on a hospital bed after Katagiri left.

One week later

Satoru finds his mother stabbed to death and is framed for it. The blue butterfly signals "Revival" kicking in.

February 8th, 1988 (67th year of the Showa Era)

Satoru came into the vaguely familiar building. He made his way over to his old classroom. There were faces he had recognized, but were unable to put a name to most of them. This elementary school did not have a standard winter uniform, so his classmates were in casual clothing. The teacher directed him to take his seat. Satoru randomly picked an empty seat, but it was Hinazuki Kayo's seat. A random girl asked if he had a crush on her since they were both weird.

Satoru picked the correct seat. As attendance was called out, he moved into keep through. "Why am I here? What is the meaning of this?" "Revival" never was more than 7 days. If he was supposed to keep his mom from being killed, a full day repeat would have been effective. Tell her to lock the door would have been sufficient. It can't stop a determined break in, but no murderer smart enough to set up a scapegoat would be dumb enough to attract attention by breaking the door before his scapegoat arrived. At least, Satoru assumed he was the intended scapegoat. The police arrived while the landlady was talking on the phone, so obviously it wasn't her. Instead it was 1988. If this was revival the will that orders Satoru and says "prevent it" obviously did not have the goal of saving his mother as a primary goal.

Satoru excused himself from the classroom and started leaving the school. "What is going on? Is it 'Revival'" thought Satoru. He rushed past a tardy girl who had brown hair clad in red. Satoru went by a few grey apartments and arrived at his old house in half an hour. He entered the building. There was a kitchen and some rice balls. A feeling of nostalgia picked up. Satoru went into his old room. There was a picture of him playing with his friends. He picked up a mask of his favorite TV superhero.

Hours later, Satoru woke up. He had drifted to sleep. When we woke up, there was a shadow over him. "I'm back" said a familiar voice.

Satoru turned to see Fujinuma Sachiko, his mother. Except for having a 30 cm ponytail, she looked more or less the same as he saw her yesterday (his perspective). "ka-san (ma)…" said Satoru. Satoru's mom was surprised at this greeting. "I meant 'oka-san' (mom)" said Satoru. His eyes had some tears in them.

Satoru's mom prepared a meal with hamburger being the main dish at his request. When they started eating, they had small talk and Satoru realized he had been crying. They had times like this without him realizing it. Time that he had lost. "This is 'Revival' after all. It's another chance. And no way am I going to lose this time" thought Satoru.

The next day going to school, a boy wearing glasses and a long cap that ended in a white cloth sphere greeted him. It was one of Satoru's circle of friends. "Oh… Hi Osumu" Satoru said weakly. He thought he remembered the name. The boy didn't correct Satoru and seemed satisfied at the answer.

In class Satoru observed Hinazuki Kayo. She lived with her mother. She was going to be murdered the next month. Before lunch Satoru saw she had a bruise just at the level of her skirt. During break, Satoru talked with his friends. One of them commented about their preferences for video games and Satoru didn't even have a Nintendo _Famirī Konpyūta_ /Famicon/NES. One of them called attention to Satoru looking at Hinazuki earlier that day. They quickly all jumped on. The spiky brown haired large boy Kazu grabbed his shoulder. "Why didn't you come to us for advice? Leave it to me. I can make it so you can talk to Hinazuki!" said Kazu, the same spiky haired boy who greeted him the previous day.

"It's not that I 'like' her. More like she's on my mind" said Satoru.

"Satoru-kun, you're got guts!" said Hiromi, a boy with black hair that nearly reached his chin.

"I'll arrange it so you can see her after school" said Kazu.

After school, Satoru and Hinazuki Kayo were on a riverbank. "Are you an idiot?" asked Hinazuki. Satoru realized she cut to the chase quickly with no pleasantries.

"Is that how you greet someone?" asked bluntly Satoru. "I just said that out loud" he thought. Satoru felt somewhat nervous his tone might have turned her off, which would mean his mission failed before he even started. Kazu probably flat out told her Satoru had a crush on her. Satoru just needed to save this girl's life so he can figure out what this has to do with his mother. Perhaps the killer who framed Yuuki was the same one who killed his mother in 2006. It would not hurt to have her have some fun and pleasure. But that was not the goal. Hinazuki was a means to an end, whereas when a boy has a crush and tries to talk to the girl, she is the end.

Satoru tried to focus on his objective. "I thought maybe we could be friends. We do go home the same way" said Satoru.

"Why do you say that to me of all people" said the girl in the red jacket. Satoru was thinking this brat was getting to be a pain in the ass. He just needed to tolerate it and keep his eyes on his objective.

"But I do understand. After all, you and I are both fakes Fujinuma" said Hinazuki. Satoru felt like he had been pierced. She commented on his running home early the previous day. "Is your mother that precious to you?" After Satoru nodded, she replied "Oh" and started to leave the frozen riverbank by climbing some stairs.

Satoru continued with his offer of friendship. "Would you kill someone for my sake?" said Hinazuki. She was now standing a meter above his head. Her skirt which barely covered the top part of her bruise mark now left most of her top leg exposed and the entire mark. Satoru could see with enough detail this injury happened within the week, possibly during the weekend or maybe even the previous day. What was a simple bruise was hit hard enough that the mark would need a whole week to heal.

Something was obviously wrong with Hinazuki even while she was alive. He thought back to the pseudo-funeral death announcement his school had. In that picture of her, she was not smiling, but looked almost annoyed. Satoru also thought about her calling him a fake. Satoru considered she obviously didn't mean his adult self posed as his 11 year old self. Even his first time in elementary school, he forced himself to be outgoing to make it easier to interact with his classmates and to a lesser extend please his friends, even though they would not outright desert him if he did otherwise. In other words, he was always guarding himself when he initiated conversation and action.

Satoru came back to the classroom. Kazu, Osamu, Hiromi, and Kenya were present. The first three peppered him with questions about his talk with Hinazuki. This was annoying and pressured Satoru. The blond haired boy Kenya closed his book. "Quit poking at him. What if your overeagerness blows it for him?" he said. Satoru knew Kenya was thinking about something else, but relieved to get the pressure off.

As they left a conversation made him realize he had probably left his gloves at their hideout. Well, he knew what it looked like, but didn't remember enough of the town to figure out how to actually get there. Satoru would have to wait until his friends went there. Kazu offered to have the others come to his house the next day. After most of them left, Satoru thanked Kenya for realizing he was pressured by the other boys. Kenya suggested Satoru read the student compositions.

Satoru came back to his house and pullet out the student compositions. He turned to Hinazuki's. It was titled "The Town Without Me." It started with how she wanted to go to a faraway island. There were things she could live without and things she could do there. And she thought about how the town would continue. "Kids go to school as if nothing had changed. Adults go to the office as if nothing had changed. Mom easts as if nothing had changed. When I think about the town without me, I feel a sense of relief. I want to go far far away." Hinazuki's essay was likely an unconscious SOS. Maybe Kenya thought it wasn't a romantic interest Satoru had but that he was worried after reading the essay.

At dinner, Satoru thanked his mother for the meal and talked about a possible birthday party. His mom agreed and thought to get a large cake. Later, Satoru had trouble sleeping. There hours after the lights were out, he was trying to analyze his situation. "If I change Hinazuki's behavior and avoid the crime that would otherwise occur around me soon… if I can do that I can save mom" he thought.

"Satoru, are you awake? Let's see five people…. Do you have a girlfriend?" asked Satoru's mom. While that was false, it could look that way for anyone who had been following Satoru this week without reading his mind. The all-seeing eye was perfect for a yokai.

On February 12th, 1988, Hiromi and Satoru arrived at Kazu's house. They put in the NES "Super Mario Bros." Hiromi failed the first Bowser. Satoru managed to get as far as world 4, but the spiny minions foiled his Mario. Kazu used the warp pipe to get to 3-1 and said he wouldn't use the warp pipe for the rest of the game. At world 4-1 Kazu discovered unlike other copies of the game, hitting spiked enemies from below a block with a jump would flip them over and render them vulnerable as enemies from Mario Bros would have. No other glitches were discovered and world 5-2 was his match.

"You finish the game in the last castle by dropping Bowser into the lava with the ax just as before and you rescue Princess Peach. If he came out of the lava, made his way all the way to the next castle despite Mario's head start, and is ready to confront you again, what makes you think he is completely defeated after axing his bridge and dunking him into the lava again" asked Hiromi.

"I guess you like complete stories. No wonder you prefer Final Fantasy" said Kazu. The three of them went to talk about that game and Hiromi agreed that they should play it together sometime. They talked about Kazu's crush, second year middle school student with hair that reached her knees. Satoru didn't remember her and guessed she wasn't too memorable. By Kazu's own admission, they didn't really see each other much, but commented that they all had plenty of time. Attention focused on Satoru. To not pressure him too much, Kazu asked a simple question. "So, are things going OK with Hinazuki?"

Satoru hesitantly gave the affirmative. He went home for dinner. Satoru considered he didn't have all the time in the world, but on the other hand, thinking about heavy weight problems was going to affect his mood. Satoru needed to either let off some stress or have a harder time putting forward the intended out version of him. He decided to go sightseeing over the weekend.

February 16th, 1988

Satoru stayed to chat with his friends after school. He didn't mind Hinazuki had an hour head start. Satoru knew she would be waiting in the park as always. Her mom might be abusing her, which meant that the time in the park could simply be a way to keep away from her home. Did he just think he was weird before?

As the sun had set, Satoru moved past blocks of apartment buildings, heading towards the park. Hinazuki was there standing below a single lamp that gave an eerie orange blow to the nearby snow. "Hinazuki!" he said.

"Fujinuma, what are you doing here?" asked Hinazuki in a disinterested tone.

"I told you, I want to be friends… although I don't think I can kill anyone" said Satoru.

"I was obviously kidding" said Hinazuki. Satoru thought this was getting difficult. She was not a socialable type and his attempts to get closer were getting rebuffed. "Fujinuma, you're pretending aren't you? Pretending to smile, pretending to be nice, pretending to be worried… to be honest I don't think that's a bad thing. I'm not one to talk" said Hinazuki. "But… I can't see your true face"

Satoru tried another avenue of approach. "You're right. I am pretending. I want people to like me. I'm not the most socially skilled person. When I thought 'what can I do to help myself?' the answer I came to was 'let's try liking everyone!' That makes it easier to perform." Satoru thirded the distance between them and came into the light with a smile.

"While I'm preforming, it feels like it will become real along the line" said Hinazuki.

Satoru grasped. "I feel like if you say the words over and over, it'll happen somewhere along the line" was what Katagiri-kun said. Although it was only weeks ago form his perspective, it feels like a long time. Satoru considered this mode of operation. To get something you wat, you make and effort to inspire yourself. Hinazuki was trying to endure something painful. But a ten year old girl just isn't very strong. Even without outside intervention, she was close to breaking. Satoru felt like he gained some trust with her.

Satoru reached out for his trump card. He pulled out an envelope. "Hinazuki, I want you to have this. I'm having a birthday party I want you to come. It's on March 2nd" said Satoru. Hinazuki looked flustered and turned her eyes sideways. "You'll come won't you?"

"Sure" replied Hinazuki. Fujinuma, aren't your hands cold?"

"Oh. Yes, I actually am. I think I lost my gloves somewhere" said Satoru, looking at his hands as another snowflake fell on his right hand. Hinazuki removed her hand form her pocket and pressed her hand flat against the palm of Satoru's right hand. While still colder than body temperature, it was still war compared to the air. It was Satoru's turn to get flustered. He gasped, blushed, and stared straight forward. "Hey, you're 29 years old. Get a hold of yourself. What am I embarrassed about" thought Satoru. It ewas over before he could recover. "My hand is bigger than yours isn't it?"

"Are you an idiot?" replied Hinazuki, turning away. Satoru's shoulders slunk. "But recently Fujinuma, it's been easier to talk to you"

"That's because I decided not to die to you" said Satoru. "Oh, I just said that out loud" he thought, caught off guard by his unintentional remark. He quickly recovers "See you tomorrow" he finished off, waving her goodbye. It seemed she didn't have gloves either. He was not going to leave her in the park this time. "I'll change the future!" he thought.


	3. Aza Hinazuki's Terrible Life and a Chr

Aza Hinazuki's Terrible Life and a Christmas Tree in February

Hinazuki was going to disappear sometime in March. Her body would be found in April lying in the park. Fujinuma Satoru needed to know what day she was going to disappear. He remembered she was only 10 years old at the time of her disappearance. Satoru also remembered her birthday was sometime in winter. X-day was sometime between March 1st and her birthday. Unfortunately, he didn't know her birthday. If he can figure it out, he should be able to prevent those deaths.

February 18th 1988

An ice skating are of flat ice was setup near the school. Most of the ice formed a roughly circular area. On a slight elevation above it, an ice path that curved back and forth led to the school. Satoru's class and two others had PE. Some were skating below. Large snow banks over a meter high were mounted on the sides of the ice path and most of the circle below except for a spot to enter the path and three spots around the circle. Satoru's class had the boys set to race against each other.

Both the girls and Satoru's friends thought Hamada, a brown haired kid, was going to get the best time. As Hamada passed some cheering girls, he muttered "shut up already" Whatever happened in the last seven days did not make Hamada happy. Three of his friends being absent the week probably didn't add to it.

Yashiro-sensei was mediating the races. Satoru got pared against Hamada. Satoru thought about Hamada. Hamada was a regular on the ice hockey team, the kind who'd win the national championship. Hamada later went to a different high school that Satoru, but he did remember an acquaintance mentioning that Hamada was the star right wing of his team despite being a better center than their actual center. He remembered racing against Hamada years ago.

"Fujinuma, are you going to win?" asked Hinazuki, once again wearing her bright red coat.

"I'll go as fast as I can" said Satoru. Hinazuki wished him luck. They lined up at the start.

The teacher blew his whistle signaling the start. Both boys went at their fastest. Satoru started outpacing Hamada and took the "inside" of the curves on the ice path, gaining additional centimeters of lead. Satoru's four friends cheered him on. At least 13 girls who knew Hamada as well as Satoru did cheered Hamada. Kazu was amazed at Satoru's speed.

Satoru skated forward with maximum effort. The cramp was building in his legs. As a kid, Satoru was really fast with his arms and fairly fast with every part of his body. On the other hand, his stamina was no more than a non-athlete kid. Satoru knew he with his small lead, he stood a good chance of beating Hamada if only because the race wasn't long enough for Hamada's stamina to matter. But… "Is it okay for me to win? Would victory have any meaning? It is just a pride race between elementary school boys. Actually, since this was only a PE race, for most kids even pride wasn't at stake. This guy goes through hard training every day. After December, I only skated for fun once a week in this 1988. The winner should be…" thought Satoru. He started gliding the last 3 meters.

"Hamada!" said Yashiro-sensei.

"Goal!" exclaimed a girl at the finish simultaneously.

Satoru's friends were excited. "Satoru gave Hamada a run for his money!" cried Kazu. Satoru was too out of breath to reply. Even after throwing the last few meters, he had still spent all his stamina.

Hamada had beaten his 4th best time on this unofficial path. In other words, he did better on this same place. He was annoyed at Fujinuma. Hamada reached over and picked up Fujinuma Satoru by the collar. "Fujinuma! I hate punks like you!" Hamada screamed.

"What's wrong with Hamada?" asked Hiromi, Satoru's friend with long black, for a boy, hair.

"It's like he lost" said Osumu, Satoru's friend with glasses.

"Should I punch him?" threatened Kazu, Satoru's large friend with spiky brown hair.

"It's (huff) ok. Leave it" said Satoru. Suddenly he remembered. He made the same mistake 18 years ago. Hamada said exactly the same thing the first time. Kenya, the blond haired kid, continued to stare at Satoru.

The last class of the day was algebra. Satoru tried to chase after Hinazuki. "Hamada was really fast" said Satoru. "When is your birthday?"

"You said you wouldn't lie to me" said Hinazuki.

"I'm sorry. For some reason I thought Hamada should win today" said Satoru. Hinazuki rebuffed him. After turning down an offer to walk home from Hiromi, Satoru walked towards the staff room. He needed to know her birthday.

There didn't appear to be anyone present. Satoru poked around and flipped through some papers. He needed the roaster. One book said "5th year, Class 14. Homeroom teacher Yashiro Gaku" This probably contained it. He started to open the book when a hand gently grabbed his shoulder.

Satoru turned around and saw a dark haired adult. "Yashiro-sensei…" said Satoru, stretching his arms wide and looking sheepish. Yashiro-sensei smilied.

"Is it about Kayo?" asked Yashiro-sensei.

"I wanted to look up her birthday. Sorry" said Satoru.

"You seem to be getting along with her lately. Did you try asking for yourself" said Yashiro-sensei looking through the booklet.

"I told her my birthday, but she wouldn't tell me mine" said Satoru.

"Ah, that makes sense. Here have a look" said Yashiro-sensei opening up to the roster and handing it over. Satoru saw that Hinazuki Kayo's birthday was… March 2nd. It was his own birthday. Satoru tanked Yashiro-sensei. "Well, Kayo is kind of shy, so it was probably pretty hard for her to say it" said Yashiro-sensei. "It's probably best for you not to make a big deal out of it"

"Yeah I will. Well, excuse me" said Satoru.

"Satoru. That was a close race today. Doing your best is key to everything. I'm counting on you for Kayo too" said Yashiro-sensei with a wink.

"Yes!" said Satoru with his own smile. "Yashiro Gaku… he's about my age this time period. He has a good observing eye" thought Satoru. As he went home, he considered what he had learned. X-day was March 1st. That was the day Hinazuki would die if she was left in the park. 12 days from this point.

Satoru looked in the park, but Hinazuki was absent. A white paper glider flew down to his knees. "Satoru-kun!" called out a friendly voice. A brown haired figure with a somewhat homely face appeared. His hair was in a cap. It was Jun, aka Yuuki

` Yuuki invited Satoru to his room for a few hours. Looks like since I told you three years ago to pick a trait about a popular kid to emulate to get yourself to open up, you added quite a few friends to your circle beyond one. Good for you" he said. "It's because you mustered up courage. The feeling you had to want to have fun got across" Yuuki was the stuttering and soft hearted soul Satoru remembered. He was most defiantly not the culprit. The two of them talked about Hinazuki. Apparently he talked to her a few times, but he couldn't get a conversation or learn anything about her.

Satoru also learned that Yuuki worked at his father's bento shop. Yuuki works from 7 in the morning to noon before the shop takes a lunch break. Yuuki doesn't come back after r the break. Satoru was surprised that Yuuki was employed, something he didn't realize the first time. Yuuki was 23 in this timer period, younger than Satoru in the present.

On one of the bookshelves, there were a few gay porn magazines. Satoru's face expressed shock. Yuuki saw that and quickly turned to where Satoru was looking at. He covered them up with a drape. "Those aren't mine! Someone gave them to me and I didn't throw them out yet" he stammered. Satoru guessed that those were given to further frame Yuuki. Satoru's testimony of their existence the previous time must have made things worse.

After some time, Satoru made a motion to leave the house. As walked over to his jacket and put it on, Yuuki made an observation. "Satoru-kun, you've become more mature somehow."

"Yeah" said Satoru. As he left his thoughts started swirling. In the present Shiratori Jun was on death row for those murders. Satoru still couldn't' believe Yuuki did those. As long as Satoru can prevent the abductions, there is nothing to frame him.

The next day Satoru went over to the Hinazuki residence. It was kind of a dump, with some trash bags that were unpicked up and litter around the shed area. No one seemed to be home, despite the fact that there was no school so at the very least Hinazuki should be home. Satoru saw some torn red gloves, a backpack and its contents were strewn out in a trail with some footprints in the snow, leading to a shed. He opened it up. Inside was Hinazuki in a nightgown with serval bruises. "You'll freeze" said Satoru, taking off his coat and approaching Hinazuki.

"Close the door... stay away from me!" screamed Hinazuki.

"What are you doing here Kayo?" said a light haired woman. It was Hinazuki Akemi, Hinazuki Kayo's mother. "Let's go inside" She forcefully grabbed her daughter and put on a red cloak. Satoru confronted the woman and asked how the girl got so badly hurt.

"I fell" lied Hinazuki Kayo. Satoru opened his eyes wide open and started at her. She did not look back. He didn't think of a good answer to that sad lie.

February 21st 1988

Satoru hung out with his friends and talked about preparation for his birthday party. Kenya and Kazu both realized that Satoru had something else on his mind. Kazu was invited over to the Fujinuma residence for dinner.

February 22nd 1988

Satoru prepared a fire for the class in the heater. Fujinuma Satoru and Hinazuki had class duty that day. Hinazuki arrived late. Satoru realized a new mark was on the back of her heck, not quite hidden by the hair. The two of them collected the lunch fee. Satoru needed to fix the problems. He needed to change the future, but he was running out of past.

During a break, Satoru told everything he saw to Yashiro-sensei. He even seemed to know a little about it. Satoru wanted to know everything Yashiro-sensei knew. "I'm struggling to tell the class about it. If anyone knew she was being physically abused, they might not want to interact with her. That would be bad enough, but she doesn't have a close friend who could understand." said Yashiro-sensei. "I know for you it' not, so I'll tell you everything. But don't let the class know"

"To be honest, I started suspecting her last May. But there wasn't any tangible evidence. Kayo's mother hid the wounds. The Child Consultation Center visited her three times since I alerted them in September, but maybe because the mother has good intuition both of them were not in the house, so an official interview was not conducted yet"

"What the hell? Then they're incompetent" said Satoru. He realized he just said that out loud.

"I've sent he mother a few times and there is defiantly physical abuse going on. Now the Child Consultation center just needs to confirm it so they'll take Kayo away from her mother" said Yashio-sensei. He already made the preliminary arrangements. "but once that happens, she'll no longer be in this class" he finished, arcing his back on his seat so his eyes wre level with Satoru who was standing.

"If that saves Hinazuki, I don't care. Hurry sensei" said Satoru. He was sure Yashiro was going to take action spring break. Unfortunately, that will be too late. Satoru got agitated.

Hours later, it was time for lunch. Three of the students were warming up the hot portions of the meals. Satoru couldn't find the lunch money. "I'm 29 years old and I'm involved with an incident like this?" thought Satoru. He reported that the week's lunch money was lost.

"I think someone must have stolen it! And I'm suspicious of Hinazuki-san. Hinazuki-san doesn't pay for her lunches and I think the culprit has to be someone who's poor" said a pig tailed haired girl named Misato.

A search into people's bags for lunch money started. Misato seemed to be really pushing for search. Others had been eliminated and Hinazuki was left, reaching in and… "Here it is" she said holding the money.

"See? Just as I said. Kayo is the thief!" yelled out Misato.

"Shut up! Hinazuki would never steal form anyone!" said Satoru. He bet Misato did it, after all she was the one who pushed other to search for the thief. Kenya pointed out anyone could have taken the money and put it as a plant.

Yashiro-sensei clapped his hands to quiet the class. "Listen, Kayo is on duty today, so there is nothing unsual aobut her having the lunch money. Satoru, that's the end of it. Let's have lunch OK?" he said.

After school was over, the duty students needed to bring their class's trash from the classroom to the main bin. That was Fujinuma Satoru and Hinazuki Kayo. The air was warm enough to go without jackets. There was an awkward silence. "Fujinuma, thanks for earlier" said Hinazuki.

"It's OK, what she said was uncalled for. Although objectively speaking, I barely know you any more than her so there isn't a whole lot of reason for me to trust you over her. I just did so without good reason" said Satoru.

"In our 3rd year, Misato kept making fun of my pencils, so I threw her prized mechanical pencil out the window. She's hated ever since, although it's mutual" said Hinazuki.

"I would have to say she has enough reason to believe she deserve to get some payback on you if she hasn't already. But framing you was well over the line" said Satoru as he dumped the trash into the main bin.

"One day she invited me to a Christmas party. It was just to show off her Christmas tree, but it was beautiful" said Hinazuki.

Satoru remembered something. "Wanna go see one after this?" said Satoru.

"See what" said Hinazuki.

"A Christmas tree" said Satoru with an anticipated smile on his face.

"Are you an idiot?"

In the end Hinazuki ended up following. The sun had set half an hour ago and they were still climbing a snow ridden mountain. "I come here to skin now and then. I see red foxes sometimes" he said.

Two red foxes emerged from the cover of the conifers and circled them from a meter away. Satoru expressed his awe. 18 years before, from his perspective, he saw them this week, but no one believed him.

"I wonder if they're a couple" said Hinazuki.

"Yeah, I bet they are" said Satoru. Then they both realized Hinazuki had grabbed his arm and a hand while trying to avoid touching the foxes. "ahhh" they both said as they separated, somewhat embarrassed.

As they claimed the mountain further, they reached a local peak. One conifer stood triple the height of all the other trees that were there. Translucent icicles hung down form it, some of them more than 30 cm long, far longer than the ice on the nearby trees. With no clouds in the sky, the dying glow of the west sky combined with the lights of the star and Venus made the icicles sparkle. "A Christmas tree! Right?" said Satoru.

"Are you an idiot? It's February" said Hinazuki.

"Let's see this again in the summer. This Chiasmas tree…" said Satoru.

"Are you an idiot?" said Hinazuki, holding Satoru's hand and smiling for the first time in a long time.

At the same time, in this very late hour, Kenya was having a talk with someone with the same hair as Yashiro-sensei in the school building. Once again, it should be noted the sun went down some time ago.


	4. X-Day and Birthday

X-Day and Birthday

Fujinuma Satoru was pondering the next logical move. X-Day was March 1st. Having invited Hinazuki to his birthday party on March 2nd, there were no longer any preparations that sill needed to be done. He might as well find some way to spend the weekend. Kazu and Hiromi had the NES. There was also the children's center. Or perhaps he would go skiing with Kazu.

February 24th, 1988

Satoru decided on a different option. He told his mother he was going to take the gang out to the local science center. He was questioned about it being a date, which he immediately denied.

"I see. If it were a date I'd give you money for it" said Satoru's mom.

"Seriously?" thought Satoru.

During a class break, three girls crowded around Yashiro-sensei, asking questions. A brown haired girl Misato expressed some disgust at their affections. "Until recently, you were the same way too weren't you? You can go up there too y'know?" said Satoru.

"What's with that slang? Are you trying to sound cool" said Misato, not appeased at the suggestion. Satoru got nervous as he realized he let some modern slang out. "Sensei thinks I'm a thief. And so do you. Never mind, it doesn't matter anyways"

Later at school, Satoru invited Kenya, Hiromi, Kazu, and Osamu to come over on Saturday. Osamu expressed approval before Kazu gave him a pinch. The gang quickly mentioned that they all had separate events that tied them up. "It's better if just you and Hinazuki go!" said Kazu, giving a grin. The gang walked off.

"Fujinuma? Did something happen?" asked Hinazuki Kayo.

"Oh nothing. I told them I couldn't play with them Saturday because I have a date with you" replied Satoru. "Should I say that?" he thought. Hinazuki had a surprised look on her face. Fujinuma Satoru realized he once again said the first thing that popped into his mind out loud. His nonplussed look gave way to neutrality when he was reminded there was one more obstacle, her mother Hinazuki Akemi.

Later that day, Satoru was just outside the front landing of the Hinazuki's house. The elder messy blond haired Hinazuki towered over the elementary school children. Her eyes focused intensely on Satoru, who would not back down to intimidation. What did she need her daughter at home for? To help blow off steam? Satoru was losing his patience.

"When it comes to saving a friend, there isn't a gain or loss!" said Satoru.

"Saving? You think you're a prince on a white horse?" said Hinazuki Akemi. Satoru realized he made a mistake. While this was not the biggest example of his loose lips today, hinting of Hinazuki's abuse made his position worse. While Satoru could not be pushed off by intimidation, Hinazuki-san could dictate where her daughter went, so Satoru could be pushed of legalistically.

Hinazuki's mother tried to push Satoru off by asking her about her own intention. When the red clad girl said she wanted to go, her mother lost her temper. "Get your mind out of the gutter perverted brats!" she said raising her hand to strike.

A grip appeared on her hand. It was Fujinuma Sachiko, Satoru's mother. "You shouldn't call children that" she said. After a brief discussion, Hinazuki's mother seemed to relent. Satoru and his mother started the walk home.

"I got off early and luckily I happened to see you, so I followed you here" said Satoru's mom.

"Wait, you followed us?" said Satoru.

"I- I'm obviously kidding" she said. "but everything should be OK for now. That girl is wearing nice cloths. It's because her mother cares about appearances." Satoru asked if she knew what was going on. "No, but given our conversation and seeing the mother, I can take a guess" Satoru was impressed by her intuition.

"Kayo-chan is a cute girl" said Satoru's mom. Satoru blushed and lightly slapped his cheeks. "What am I embarrassed for? I'm 29 years old" he thought, somewhat annoyed with himself. He needed to focus on the end goal.

February 27th, 1988

Fujinuma Satoru and Hinazuki arrived at the science center on time to greet each other. Satoru took a glance at his classmate. It seemed that in the past few days, her mother was refraining form abuse. After a short silence, they skipped the pleasantries and went to a stuffed bear. "That one is one of my favorites" said Satoru.

"Are you an idiot?" said Hinazuki.

The two of them went around the exhibits for three hours. Later Satoru offered a planetarium presentation, which was declined. Satoru went to the bathroom. Something felt wrong. It was like a déjà vu, but he only came here with his friends or his mother, not Hinazuki. "Revival" didn't start ordering him around until November of 1988. So what was going on?

Satoru came back and they looked through the glass on an exhibit. "Fujinuma, did you know I liked this place" said Hinazuki. Satoru remembered having a similar conversation 18 years before. He was intending to change the future but was he riding the same rail of time? Satoru didn't remember brining Hinazuki there but, the feeling of familiarity was strong. Satoru vaguely remembered this period of time for him was largely forgotten to him by the 3rd millennium and only recently remembered details when his mother brought it up. Perhaps he remembered wrong and in fact was looping through, seeing his new friend and an old one die, banishing his memories to the center of his heart never to be touched again, and then doing it all over again. Anxiously he looked for something different.

"Satoru!" said Kenya.

"Hinazuki" greeted Hiromi.

"Hey there!" beamed Kazu.

Satoru breathed some sigh of relief. This was different. The feeling of familiarity was probably coincidentally meeting Hinazuki his first time around. The gang would see each other on the last day of February.

That Monday, Satoru was first into the classroom. He watched the duty student fill in and the others slowly arrived. Satoru's friends came in. "Good morning Fujinuma" said a girl form behind. Hinazuki came in before the morning bell.

"Good morning Hinazuki" said Satoru, relieved. She was often late due to abuse form her mother, but not this week. "You're pretty" said Satoru. Satoru looked embarrassed and everyone in earshot looked surprise. "I actually said that…" he thought. The classroom explored with excitement and Yashiro-sensei had to clap his hands to calm the class.

March 1st, 1988

Satoru left the house early to make progress. After breakfast he hurried over to the Hinazuki household. This was X-day, the first real challenge. On this day, 18 years before Hinazuki disappeared. But this time he was going to make it different. Satoru grabbed Hinazuki's hand, his face full of determination and confidence.

Circumstances have changed since the last time 18 years ago. As they walked past the school yard Hiromi noticed Satoru and Hinazuki holding hands. "Satoru-kun's got guts!" said Hiromi.

Once the school day was over, Satoru talked to his friends about some of the things they would do in the party. For the rest of this day, they would go to the children's center. Hinazuki wanted to go home, but Satoru insisted on her joining them.

After a few hours, the two of them played a two player board game. Satoru was surprised at being beaten seven games in a row. This only served to pad another hour. It was sufficient though, probably enough of the day had past. He walked her home. The sun went down and the glowing echo of twilight was diluted by the clouds. As they passed the park, Satoru had a vivid memory of Hinazuki in the park alone 18 years ago. He smiled as the memory faded and he looked at Hinazuki gripping her hand.

It started to snow and Hinazuki immediately commented on it. Satoru could feel victory within his grasp. "I'll see you tomorrow!" said Satoru as loud as he could. It was for Hinazuki, her mother and anyone who might be watching.

After a seafood casserole dinner, Satoru could not sleep. He snuck out with a clock. "I'm an idiot" he thought. Hinazuki was targeted because she was alone and therefore there were no witnesses. Once again, those circumstances have no longer existed days ago. Even if Satoru miscalculated, it was obviously too late to take corrective action. He watched all three hands of the clock reach the 12.

March 2nd 1988

Fujinuma Satoru couldn't wait. He ate a candy bar and headed off before his mother even started crating breakfast. Satoru rushed over to see Hinazuki as soon as possible. He reached the door to her house and rang. After several minutes, Satoru sat on the snow. Three minutes after that, the door opened. It was Hinazuki in her pajamas, with an annoyed look.

"Morning, Hinazuki" said Satoru

"Are you an idiot?" said Hinazuki Kayo, probably a fully justified remark.

At the end of the school day, Satoru gathered with his friend. They were all ready to go shopping for party stuff. "Satoru, Kayo, can you help me for a moment" interrupted Yashiro-sensei.

The two of them needed to move some moderately heavy boxes to storage. This was probably due to the fact that the pair blew off the last cleaning duty before they took out the class trash the last week… or maybe it was due to the two duties before that the pair blew off. Satoru was a bit disappointed none of his friends waited for him.

The two of them bought sandwich supplies. Satoru remembered 18 years before, he and his mom made sandwiches and it took a week to finish them off. They arrived at the Fujinuma house.

Noise makers fired and party string popped out of horns. "Satoru! Hinazuki! Happy birthday!" said Kenya, Osamu, Kazu, and Hiromi. Satoru's mom was behind them smiling.

"You prepared a surprise party for us?" said Satoru. "And that duty after school"

"We told your mom and Yashiro-sensei about it. Yashiro-sensei told us it was Hinazuki's birthday too" said Kenya.

Two cakes with 11 candles each in them with frosting and decorations. One was a very large one with traditional baked material while the other was a strawberry shortcake the size of a small birthday cake.

Hinazuki expressed disappointment she didn't have a present for Satoru due to time. All of the kids had a great time. They made sandwiches and finished them off. Satoru remembered it was fun having friends. A board game and the television were ready to soak up the time. Hours later, the two of them opened up presents while eating cake, 13 for Satoru and 4 for Hinazuki. Satoru had his own gift for Hinazuki, a pair of warm beige gloves. Satoru's fiends offered to clean up he party while he walked Hinazuki home.

"Thanks for today!" said Hinazuki. "I'll give you your present tomorrow. That's a promise"

"I'd be happy to see it, but take your time. Good clothwork takes a while to finish. If it takes 10 hours to get it right, give it to me on the 9th instead of tomorrow" said Satoru.

Satoru went home, took a shower, and slept like a log. He won! He changed history. And that meant he controlled the present too. Satoru felt all the tense feelings in his body fade away. After all that work, he had won. Hinazuki was saved and as long as Hiromi doesn't walk home alone, he was saved if Hinazuki was saved.

Satoru rushed to school the next day. He made it in 3/4 of the time he usually did, using up what little stamina he had. Satoru started morning a bit late and he hope he wouldn't have to pay for it. It was great. Instead of worrying about a resistant publisher and mounting bills that took difficulty to pay, his worries were limited to getting to class on time, keeping his strength up, and having fun with his friends. Satoru burst into the classroom.

"Oh Satoru, I was about to mark you tardy. Is Kayo the only on late?" said Yashiro-sensei. The promise Hinazuki made would not be kept.


	5. Back to the Future

Back to the Future Wait, I Need to be in the Past

Fujinuma Satoru considered the situation. Hinazuki was 11 as of yesterday, so she should have been saved. Unfortunately, she wasn't here as promised. On the other hand, Hinazuki did say she would work on it all night. She probably just fell asleep and missed school, despite Satoru explicitly telling her to work a few weeks.

"Satoru!" said Yashiro-sensei.

"Yes!" said Satoru.

"Satoru, are you worried about something?" asked the teacher. Some of the class giggled. Satoru quickly did the problem on the board as he was told.

After school Satoru grabbed his stuff and started off at a run.

"Satoru, want to go to the children's center together?" offered Hiromi.

"I have to check something!" said Satoru, only slowing down to reply. Kazu started trailed Satoru.

Satoru rushed over to Hinazuki's house, banged on the door, and called for her name. No reply came. He rushed over to the shack where Hinazuki was once found beaten and scantily clothed. To his relief, she wasn't there. But that did leave the question of where she was.

Satoru saw some tracks. They were made from rubber boots "An adult male size. It snowed the night before the last" said Satoru.

"That means a guy or a large girl came here last night. Is something unusual about that? Are you worried Hinazuki-kun didn't come to school?" said Kazu. Satoru realized he was talking out loud. One of these days it was going to embarrass him. Oh wait… he did call her pretty in front of Kazu… and the whole class!

Akemi's boyfriend closed the small curtain slit. Two boys were snooping around the shack where they lost Hinazuki Kayo. "What are we going to do?" Akemi remained silent and curled up into a ball.

Satoru looked out and saw some girls playing with a snowman. He clenched his fist in frustration.

"Hey Satoru, don't worry about it. We all had a good time yesterday. She could have fallen asleep since she was still trying to make you something. Maybe she's just ditching school for the week" said Kazu. Satoru considered the possibilities. Having known her for less than a month, he didn't think she had a reason to ditch, but given her experiences at home she didn't have a reason to respect authority either. A more troubling possibility was that her mother inflicted an injury so serious she couldn't come to school, such as breaking a leg. This almost certainly would trigger the child services once the medical bill came in due to Japan's nationalized health care. A third possibility was that she was still working on the gift and fell into a deep sleet, unable to hear the poundings of a door through several doors. In any event, it's possible the kidnapping never happened. If Satoru was right about the motive, he removed all reasons and therefore it didn't happen. Even if he was wrong about the motive, he might still have a few more weeks to act since she could be absent for mundane reasons.

Satoru decided Kazu was right. The two of them just decided to walk around and admire the frozen river and snow drifts. There was a certain mystic appearance that snow gave off. Satoru invited Kazu over for dinner. While they were waiting, they played a game of chess and Satoru ended up on the losing end of 4 pawns and bishop vs 3 pawns and a bishop of the same color. Until Kazu accidentally blundered away the bishop, Satoru was surprised at how he was nearly defeated. Then again, he only reached "hang you pieces or pawns every 3000 games instead of 5 times PER game" stage and didn't surpass that, which enough to beat nearly any elementary school kid, but against a patient one who didn't practice chess meant they were close to equals.

Satoru considered the possibilities and knew Kazu was probably right. Even if the kidnapper was still loose, he probably had a few more weeks to act. Hinazuki was probably missing because she fell asleep. Despite these rationalizations, Satoru's gut feeling was that something was probably wrong. He doubted his gut was wrong, but perhaps the "something being wrong" was simply another obstacle. Hinazuki might be late or missing Monday if her mother beats her again. Satoru hoped he could keep her safe until spring break since Yashiro-sensei was almost certainly waiting for break to act. So he decided to relax and not think about it too much if he didn't see her until next Tuesday. That was the best thing to do for his own sanity. Besides, if Satoru was right about the motives, he eliminated the circumstances that made her targeted anyways. Unfortunately Thursday March 3rd 1988, Hinazuki Kayo really did disappear.

Satoru decided to stay home Friday. He read some books and watched some TV. He saw his mother talking to some man. "Recently, similar incident happened in the next city. They caught the culprit afterward, but now this? We don't know who did it yet but we'd better to everything in our power to preventing it from happening again" said the man.

"Of course that's part of it, but about clamping down on the press... I'll call you right after I talk to the school" said Satoru's mom.

"Ok. I'll talk to the city hall" said the man. Satoru think he now recognized him as one of his mom's co-workers from TV Ishiki. Flurries started to come down.

"The kids shouldn't have to remember something like this" said Satoru's mom. Satoru remembered this was where it started.

That night Satoru was glum at dinner. While he had been hoping his efforts worked and would have been too worried if Hinazuki was missing a few more school days, the conversation from the morning confirmed his suspicions.

"I know you're worried, but it's not your fault Satoru" said Satoru's mom.

"I didn't make a difference. I didn't want Hinazuki to be alone" said Satoru.

"Then you succeeded" said Satoru's mom.

"It wasn't enough. Then there must have been something else" said Satoru, feeling the sting of failure.

"Thinking it's your own fault after the fact is just pointless. There's only so much one person can do. That holds for me and you. Go to school tomorrow" sid Sachiko, putting on a smile.

"OK" said satoru.

"Now let's eat before eat gets cold" said Satoru's mom. Dinner was scrumptious.

The next day, more bad news came. Yashiro made an announcement. "Actually, I lied when I said Kayo was home with a cold. She moved to her grandparent's home for personal reasons" he said.

After school, Yashiro's reassurance didn't seem to satisfy Satoru's classmates at all. Speculations started.

"I bet she ran away from home!"

"I heard her mother beat her!"

"That's terrible!"

A hand was placed on Satoru's shoulder. "Satoru don't worry. You'll see her again" said Kazu with a smile. Satoru felt some control of his emotion suppression return to him. He went over to the staff office shortly after.

"Satoru, the school and PTA had a discussion and decided what to say about Kayo. For the time being, go along with this story" said Yashiro-sensei.

"OK" said Satoru, defeated.

"I'm sorry"

Over the next few days, Satoru watched developments. The press has been muzzled, but a police car was parked next to the house of Hinazuki's mom for a few days. Apparently her mother is a suspect at this stage. She was in police custody for three days before being released. Officers continued to question her days after that.

On March 9th, Yashiro made an announcement to the class. "The city has issued an advisory. When you leave school grounds always be with a guardian" On March 12th, the investigation became public. TV Ishikari launched its own investigation into the first disappearance and reported late at night.

On March 13, Satoru walked by the Hinazuki household. He saw Hinazuki Akemi, the mother, bring out bag of trash. She kicked it with a smile and went back inside. Satoru walked over. Just ten days after her daughter disappeared, she threw out some personal effects, three sets of winder cloths, a jacket, and a pair of knitted mittens. Satoru remembered Hinazuki's promise of a birthday gift and their hands touching each other. He screamed and ran away from the trash. Suddenly, the snow falling seemed to accelerate and come down really fast. The world spun around. All the light now seemed to be coming from the same source.

Sometime before the World Cup 2006

Satoru reached out, disoriented. There was blood on his hands. He shook his glasses. Was he back in 2006? He listened to a policeman. They were searching for him as a suspect and he was outside his Tokyo apartment. The local special ward must have been busy that night since a Chiba marking was on the closest car.

Satoru took a series of deep breaths. Sachiko, his mom was still murdered. He was stil the suspect. Nothing has changed. This was the reality he was dealing with. Perhaps he had a hallucination? That seemed fairly likely. He felt more temporally displaced in 1988 going 18 years into the future, and the disorientation disappeared within minutes of being in 2006. More likely, he was there the whole time. OK… it was time to run!

Satoru reached a convenience store. He withdrew ¥3,000 in ¥50 bills, ¥3,000,000 in ¥10000 bills, ¥15,000 in ¥5000 bills, and ¥45,000 in ¥1000 bills. He paid for a pack and some candy. Saotru put everything in and started legging it.

Shortly after, Satoru was hiding under a bridge in a used cardboard box perfect for a hobo. This was a very anticlimactic "escape" that did not get him out of his ultimate problem. Also, under a bridge was not very imaginative at all.

Satoru thought to the murder scene. While it felt so long ago, he remembered it as if it was a few hours ago. His mother's cell phone and purse didn't seem to be either on her or close to the entrance. Did the killer take them away? Was it because he was afraid she might leak information after her death?

The next day, Satoru went over to a café and thought about the situation. It didn't seem likely he was going to clear his name. Should be focus on trying to do that or embrace the criminal life and spend all of his efforts on vengeance? He slept for a few hours. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an obsolete cell phone. Oh, contacts!

Satoru called his manager at Osai Pizza and said he had trouble and couldn't return to his home. Satoru's manager invited him home. Satoru was told to go to the guest room. The manager watched some TV. The bed was made and the house in general seemed mildly fancy and spacious. The Osai Pizza manager was fairly pleasant and served dinner three hours later. "This is the first time you were absent form work without permission. Katagiri-kun was worried about you too. Knowing you I'm sure there's some reasonable explanation too, but don't stay too long. Anyways let's eat up first" he said

After the meal the Osai Pizza manager offered some beer. "Oh I'm out. I'll go buy some more" he said. Satoru considered the impression of the manager as an annoying older brother type. It seemed he was right. He felt bad for lying to his manager.

Satoru turned on the TV. On the news was about the previous night's murder. The police got a tip from someone and found Sachiko's body. Given that they called it a tip and not a crime in progress from the landlady, it explains why the police were arriving as she was calling the police. Satoru peeked out the window. He saw the manager talking to a policeman with a lone cruiser outside the apartment.

Satoru was furious. The manger betrayed his trust. No, Satoru was thinking. The manger isn't to blame. He's always trying to do the right thing. The police are generally right about crimes; a normal citizen would believe them. Satoru escaped via a side door and vaulted himself over a meter high wall. His cell phone slipped and spun on the ground. Satoru himself had a rough landing.

A light shone over Satoru, blinding him. "Are you an idiot?" said a familiar voice, stepping off a motorcycle. The light was coming from both the motorcycle and a hand held flashlight. The girl was wearing an Osai Pizza uniform, holding a flashlight and Satoru's cell phone at the same time

"Airi..." said Satoru

"You called me Airi there Satoru-san" said Katagiri Airi-kun. "You can't leave your cell phone on. They'll just track you with GPS." She got on the work motorcycle. "What are you doing? Hop on. You want to get away right?" she continued.

Satoru complied. Half an hour later they were in her room. Her house was a residential one with an outside plot. Satoru felt guilty about burdening his co-worker, but needed every help he could get. "I'm sorry Katagiri-kun" he said.

"It's 'Airi.' Riding double on the bike makes us equals."

"You don't mind letting me in your house? You do know what happened, right?" said Satoru.

"The police came to the shop today and talked to the manager."

"Then why…" said Satoru.

"It's obvious. There's no way you killed your mom Satoru" said Katagiri Airi, stepping back and taking a seat on her key. The back of her hands lay on her hips which swung slightly. Somehow the red pizza uniform just makes her look adorable.

"I see. Thank you" said Satoru, breathing a sigh of relief.

Katagiri Airi waved her hands. "You don't need to thank me. I can't believe they're chasing you the one who's grieving the most. Although, Satoru-san you are connected to a lot of crimes" she said. She withdrew a magazine. "Here. You forgot this the other day. I read the article you bookmarked with an envelope. It happened in your hometown when you were a kid right? You were close to the defendant and in the weeks before the first disappearance, you spent a lot of time with him and the first victim. Hinazuki Kayo-chan's death…to die on the day of Girls' Festival… I cried when I read that"

Satoru was surprised. "Girls' Festival? Not March 1st?"

"Yeah" said Katagiri Airi with a nod. "Or no. March 3rd" Satoru's eyes bulged and he looked concerned. "You can relax there. Airi needs to take the bike to the shop Don't even think about leaving this room"

Satoru looked into the book. The information was changed. Hinazuki was listed as dying at 11 years old. The past can be changed. If he could go back he could save Hinazuki, which would save Hiromi. Satoru fell asleep.

The next day the cicadas woke Satoru up. He put on his glasses and found himself in an unfamiliar room just below someone's bed. That's right, he was in Airi's room. Hopefully she didn't change there. A letter was on the desk. "Dear Satoru-san. I think it would be a good idea if I went about my normal routine today, so I'm going to work. My family will probably leave around 10. They said they'll be back around 8. The house key is next to the clock. My phone number is…" Satoru grabbed the key. He would attempt to do some investigation. The house had an ingenious design, requiring the key to lock it if one were on the outside. To lock youself in the house, leaving the house and closing the door is inadequate. You needed to lock the door and then throw the key into the house through some way you could not enter such as a window that was partially blocked. As Satoru left he noticed the household was labelled "Sasaoka." Hmmm… it wasn't Katagiri.

Later that day, at Osai Pizza, the manager was having a discussion with someone. "Thank you so much Nishizono-san. My dad was overjoyed. He said one stoplight and one pedestrian crossing totally changed the flow of customers for us" said the manager.

"That has more to do with your father's business acumen. All I did was give him a boost. Besides it's a school route. We would occasionally talk about it at city council meetings. Your delivery business is good and you have the equivalent of three and a third full time deliverymen. The traffic route might have brought the attention of some customers, but the pizza needed to be of high quality for them to order take outs afterwards"

An employee entered the break room. "Bye manager! I finished" said Katagiri Airi.

"Good job Airi-kun. What's that?" said the manager, gesturing at a bag containing a square shape/

"Oh, takeout pizza" said Katagiri Airi, lifting the bag slightly.

"You should've just told me! I can treat you once in a while" said the manager.

"Thank you! But that's OK. I'm sharing it with a friend" said Katagiri Airi, smiling and closing her eyes.

"O-oh, your friend? A girl, maybe?" said the manager, laughing.

There was a pause in the conversation. His conversation partner noticed the manager was red faced slightly and his eyes were following the shorts of the pizza girl. "She's a young, pretty, cute girl isn't she?" he said.

The manager refocused his attention to the present. His left arm nervously reached for the back of his head. "Sorry for the interruption. But well, she's only 17 and immature… and while it looks far from it, I'm close to 50"

"Well, I should be on my way as well" said the councilman.

"Thank you again" said the manager bowing.

Half an hour later, Katagiri Airi was still walking home. A delivery motorcycle approached her. A man in the Osai Uniform was on it. "Airi-kun!" cried out the manager, as he slowed down to a stop. "Here, you forgot this, part of our sales promotion, remember" he said handing out a bag.

"Thank you" she said.

"Also… about Satoru… I can't believe he murdered his… I mean that he did any of that" said the manager.

Katagiri Airi's nervousness dropped. "I agree"

"If you see him, do what you can to help him out" he said.

"I will!" she said, a bit more enthusiastically.

"So contact me if you see him" said the manager.

"Thank you" said Airi.

On the other side of the city, Satoru was busy going through old records. Since anything the police didn't find wouldn't likely get there, he wondered if any progress could be made. He did find that Hiromi's disappearance was hastened by 21 days, apparently by his own intervention.

He found a case of a three year old child abduction. The case was similar to Hinazuki's first disappearance, the one where she died before her birthday. He vaguely remembered that one. The police eventually got the suspect who claimed innocence. Of course, slightly less than 1 out of every 3000 criminal defendants (if it were 50- 50, it's a sign of corruption or extreme incompetence) and a lot of them claim innocence, so he didn't really pay too much attention to that.

At the end of the day, Satoru slowly crept back into the Sasaoka household. A man in the bright red shit with the yellow stripe of the Osai Pizza uniform appeared. It was Satoru's manager. He watched Satoru and then started to dial. Suddenly, a hand appeared from behind and took the cell phone.

"What do you want with the police, manager?" said a brown haired girl

"Airi-kun" said the manager, his shoulders slumping.

"You told me to help Satoru. You said we were on the same side" she continued. Her eyes moved from a mostly emotionless but slightly surprised look into a frown of anger. She waited, anticipating a logical explanation such as "I took some time to think about it and the police usually don't mess things up"

"You have it all wrong Airi-kun! I, um, was worried about you" said the manger.

Katagiri-Airi snapped the phone in half. The high school girl balled her right hand into a fist. The arm above the elbow was next to her body in a vertical position, weakening the mechanical advantage or a straight forward punch (as opposed to a hook). She then proceeded to do that straight forward punch into the manager 1 cm below the spot on is nose between the eyes. Despite the mechanical advantage or lack thereof, it was enough to cause some bleeding, make one eye swell to look shut, and knock the manager to his knees. Airi was angrier that the manager lied to her than the fact that he believed the police over Satoru, the latter something most people would have done anyways. "Then why didn't you tell me form the start? Airi wanted to trust you" she said with tears in her eyes.

"I was worried about you" the manager repeated, holding his hand to his bleeding nose.

"I believe that" the pizza girl replied. "If you're worried about Airi, don't call the police over to my house." She walked away sadly. The manager watched his employee walk off. He then eyed the pizza she left behind. He opened it up. A pizza with peperoni, onions, and dried tomatoes greeted him. Well, he didn't have dinner yet and it was blasphemy to let good pizza go to waste if you can help it. He grabbed a seat a block later and started to eat.

Later, Satoru and Katagiri Airi were under the same bridge as before. The house was no longer a safe refuge. "Thank you. You gave me a chance to rest. By the way, it's not really your parents' house is it?" said Satoru.

"No. My mom's older brother and his wife live there. My parents come from the country. I was going to find a boarding school so I could commute to high school but thy invited me to stay with them in Chiba." said Katagiri Airi.

"Can I ask one more question?" said Satoru.

"What?" said Katagiri Airi.

"Airi, how can you believe in me?" said Satoru.

"It's not that I 'can.' I want to believe in you" said Airi. This was a rather strange line of thought, and it would seem a rather poor basis in trusting a friend over the police. Satoru once again was reminded that Airi sometimes did things that made her sound like a weird girl. Still, he was grateful for being able to rest a night and curious as to her line of thought.

"When Airi was in elementary school, Otou-san (father) and I went shopping. A chocolate bar fell out of his picket. It was a small town and he knew the owner. The owner said if he admitted to stealing it and apologized, he would let the matter drop."

"But Otou-san refused to admit it. He was a kind man. That's the first time I heard him yell. The owner felt obligated to call the police, and Otou-san a member of the agricultural coop was suspended for three months. Later, he quit the coop, got divorced, and left home. I guess Ka-san (mom) thought her really did steal it. Airi wants to believe you for Airi's sake. It's the flip side to someone saying 'please believe me'" said Airi. After recounting her story, her knees were up to her chest and she was wrapping her arms around the top of her legs.

"Go back home. Tell the police I threatened you, forcing you to hide me" pleased Satoru.

"Are you an idiot? There's no way you can get away by yourself, and I refuse to tell them that" said Airi.

"Would you stop asking if I'm an idiot? You sound too much like someone much like an elementary student I knew" said Satoru.

"I can't help it if you didn't think things through. Even if I were to sever my tires with you, it would be simpler just to pretend I didn't notice you coming in and out of my house. Anyways Satoru-san, I'll at least bring you a change of clothes" said Airi.

Airi was later packing some clothing. Some old shorts that were always too big looked like they could go on a man. She would never grow big enough to need them. She threw in a towel. The manager never called the police after that incident five hours ago.

Suddenly, her phone signaled an incoming text. Airi picked it up. The phone claimed it was from Fujinuma Sachiko. "This is Satoru-san. Stay where you are."

Airi was thinking this didn't make sense. She gave him a pat down and didn't have more than a wallet and his own phone. Likely, the killer took both if Satoru really was set up like he claimed and not an incidental patsy. "What is this? What does it mean? Satoru-san found his mother's phone?" she thought out loud.

No, it didn't make too much sense. What if it was from the killer? It could be a trap. But this was her own house. If he planned to kill her, why would the killer waste the element of surprise? Unless… maybe the most likely form of escape was prevented. If so, he would see her as doomed and this message could just be to buy a few minutes if she believed it and in the worst case, not do much. But that didn't make sense either since how would he have blocked escape and come in with a knife?

Airi noticed that the air coming from her door was unusually warm since the arrival of the text. There was a fait odor to it. Smoke? "You've got to be kidding me" she thought. She opened the door. The hallway fire, was in low oxygen air and now met mostly oxygenated bedroom air. It surged, causing enough pressure to break a window. Long before the flames could reach her, Airi collapsed with all the smoke in her lungs.


	6. End of Fugative Run

End of Fugitive Run

2006

Fujinuma Satoru slowly made is way towards the Sasaoka household. Since he was seen on the news not too long ago he needed to be careful in public. The two options were to avoid as many people as possible or to go directly back acting naturally to avoid attention. People were generally oblivious to others when attention is not needed, so the latter would probably work. On the other hand, a more stealthy approach was safer at least until 7 days after the broadcast when more attention grabbing things would have been on TV. Satoru decided to avoid being seen entirely. After another half hour he was within line of sight to the house. It was visibly burning and a good fourth of the roof had caved in.

"What is this?" thought Satoru.

"I saw Airi-chan go in there before!" said one woman. Satoru rushed in, ignoring the women who tried to warn him of the danger.

Satoru opened the door, only to be greeted by an air starved fireball he just fed. There was so much smoke it was unlikely anyone inside would be able to find their way out if they were still in.

"Airi!" screamed Satoru. A blue butterfly started passing Satoru's line of vision. It was likely that Airi was currently doomed, otherwise there was no reason for that to come. Satoru mentally braced himself.

Satoru was once again slightly off the street, hidden in the shadow of a tree. Interestingly, this was at least 16 or 17 minutes he was thrown back. Satoru started jogging, feeling he would need his stamina very shortly. If he was wrong, "Revival" would demand he save whoever was in the house. He arrived at the scene in one third the time it took him previously. The flames were not yet lurking outside the house itself and nothing had collapsed. Satoru charged in.

Satoru entered the burning building with only a handkerchief as a crude filter. "Airi! Airi, can you hear me!? Airi" called out Satoru. He had reached the top of the stairs and started randomly checking areas. He was disoriented and didn't remember where anything was. He opened and closed three doors. Suddenly a plume of smoke rushed from a fire from his left. A smaller fire containing parts of the floor was in front of Satoru. Satoru carefully made his way around, coughing with the smoke.

Satoru turned a corner and saw a figure lying down on the ground. It was Airi. "Airi! Wake up" said Satoru. Satoru pulled Airi up and put the handkerchief over her mouth. Her pulse was normal, but her breath was short and irregular. After getting Airi into a standing position, h pulled her forward, his right hand holding the handkerchief and left hand supporting her by the hip. They could not move quickly. Satoru was frustrated and didn't know why he was struggling despite the fact that Airi was supporting some of her weight and he (correctly) thought she had less mass than him.

Katagiri Airi opened her eyes and silently put her cell phone into Satoru's pocket. She closed her eyes again, not unconscious, but too tired to keep her eyes open. "Hey, Airi!" said Satoru. As they descended down the stairs, Satoru fell down thrice and each time it was agonizing brining Airi back up. Seven more steps to go and the staircase was still far from the door. "This isn't good. We won't make it if we fall again, and I probably won't make it either way. I'm not strong enough" thought Satoru.

Glass broke and a hurried noise came from downstairs, rushed footsteps and furniture being overturned. A figure in the red Osai Pizza uniform and gas mask appeared and rushed towards them. It was Takahashi, the manager.

"Never count on a manga artist. Finish the decent non-stop, brace yourself" said Takahashi. They finished the decent down the stairs and struggled towards the exit. After leaving the hot flames of the house, it was evident that smoke still covered the yard. Three people saw the trio emerging from the flames. It was close enough Satoru could see one of them was one of the women startled by his entry. "Satoru-kun, go around the back. Clear your name. Airi-kun shouldn't be involved in your business anymore" said the manager. Satoru let down Airi and allowed the manager to carry her from under the legs. "The credit for this goes to me" said the manager.

Satoru hugged the side of the house which was warm or hot to touch in different places. The smoke obscured his retreat from further witnesses. It was best if the authorities did not know he was present at all.

Half an hour later and a safe distance from the sirens, Satoru slowed down to a walk. If he had been able to float ten meters, he would have noticed that Airi's house was still glowing and much brighter than his surroundings. At his level he only saw some shops which had seen better days. Three butterflies flew around a round street amp with a unique model. The colored light gave the illusion of them being the one that signaled one of Satoru's "Revival," but even if Satoru had noticed, he would not have been fooled. Their flight paths were like normal insets.

Satoru sat down on a bench to gather his thoughts. "Will Airi be alright? And don't tell me he started that fire too?" thought Satoru. Satoru reached into his pocket and took out Airi's phone. There was a text sent from his mother's phone. "This is Satoru. Stay where you are" said the message.

"The criminal intended to kill Airi. And with this text it looks like I started the fire. Airi slipped the phone to me so the police couldn't see the message. Airi was followed by the criminal. He may be closer than I thought" thought Satoru. He was furious. The criminal killing his mother was already horrible, but Airi had nothing to do with that. While Airi had believed him, she had been unable to do nothing to actually clear his name while maintaining her normal schedule, only provide a place to sleep. In other words, Airi was no threat to the killer's plot and yet she was targeted.

The next day Satoru gave a call to the number scrawled on the note Sachiko wrote. It was a contact she was talking to before her death. The contact had anticipated him and suggested a meeting place.

Three hours before the meeting, Satoru staked out the coffee shop. There was nothing irregular with the customer flow. Satoru entered the building and kept his eyes out for a police trap. Satoru approached the assigned table careful not to look directly at it.

"Hi Satoru. Over here" said a man in glasses at the table. Satoru gingerly sat down "I'm Sawada, formerly of TV Ishikari. You really are Satoru. Yeah you resemble your mother" said the man.

Satoru remembered seeing the same person years ago shortly after Hinazuki's disappearance. It shouldn't have been that long ago from his perspective, but being on the run made it feel at least weeks ago.

"I'm sure you're on guard, but I didn't tell anyone about this meeting and I didn't murder your mother either" said Sawada.

"You don't suspect me?" said Satoru meekly.

"No. She didn't raise the kind of son that would kill her" said Sawada. The two of them had coffee and lunch before heading off to Sawada's office. Satoru showed Sawada the slip of paper with the phone number and explained how he was framed. Sawada explained the phone call he got from Sachiko Fujinuma and about how she knew the serial killings years ago was not done by Jun Shiratori and she had a good idea who did them.

"Why don't we talk about a past incident? About Hinazuki Kayo's death..." said Sawada. Satoru's eyes bulged. "On the night of March 2nd 1988, Kayo was beaten by her mother and locked in the storage shed. She froze to death. However, it was determined that sometime between 10 and 11 pm on the 2nd, Kayo was removed from the shed. Kayo's mother discovered the disappearance at 12:30 am on the 3rd. She called your house and casually inquired about Kayo's whereabouts. The police went public with this sequence of events: Shiratori knocked out Kayo with physical violence and photographed her. He put her in the family business freezer. When her brain reached freezing, there was brain death. Shiratori waited several days, during which Kayo was missing. As of the 10th, the shed was still empty. Sometime after that, Shiratori returned Kayo's corpse to the Hinazuki shed. Despite the fact that the mother Hinazuki Akemi had no alibi during Kayo's disappearance, it was determined she was not the culprit. There were footprints made by rubber boots of the same kind Shiratori once wore" said Sawada.

Satoru clenched his fists. "Yuuki-san would never do that!" said Satoru, getting angry despite Sawada only being the messenger of the police's conclusions.

"Hinazuki Kayo, Sugita Hiromi, Nakanishi Aya… several months ago there was another set of serial killings. The culprit was quickly arrested, but like Shiratori Jun denied any wrongdoing. Consider at trial 3000/3001 defendants are found guilty and prior to that most defendants deny the charges. However, including your own circumstances, do you notice a common link?" said Sawada. Satoru realized his implication.

"Hinazuki Kayo, Sugita Hiromi, and Sachiko were murdered by the same bastard who gives the police another suspect! He buys time by reducing eyewitness testimony. As a result the investigation keeps moving farther from him" continued Sawada.

Kilometers away Airi came to in a hospital bed. "This is going overboard" she thought. Airi crept up and looked around. The police were monitoring the hallway. From their conversation, it was apparent she was suspected of being an accomplice to the murder of Sachiko and they thought Satoru tried to kill her to shut her up. She remembered a conversation she had with her aunt and uncle. The police evidentially told them that Satoru was stalking her after killing Sachiko. Her family tried to reassure her and brushed off her attempts at explaining the fire.

Airi crept out of the hospital and looked into a newspaper. She saw news of the arson. A plain cloths policeman was trailing her, not doing a very good job at acting natural. "I can't believe they are going after Satoru-san for murder and Arson" thought Airi, thinking to the night she ate at their house. Of course, the police obviously were not there. "Who would believe me?" she wondered.

Meanwhile Fujinuma Satoru and Sawada were discussing the arson attempt. Satoru presented the text. "I see. He plotted to help the investigation by framing you for arson" said Sawada.

"That may be part of it, but something doesn't make sense. I was already a suspect. I don't think he would target Katagiri Airi just for that. At the same time, I'm starting to doubt she was a victim of opportunity either" said Satoru.

"So in other words, you think she presented herself as a target?" said Sawada.

"In order to frame me as my mother's murder, he'd have to find out what time I returned from my job. So in the 24 hours between my mother's sighting of his attempted kidnapping and he went to the pizza shop and looked at the shift schedule. Airi would have seen his face back then. Maybe he's even someone I know. My mom recognized him" said Satoru.

"I see then he's someone who could get behind the counter of a pizza shop to look at the schedule. We may be able to use this to get the bad guy. I'm going to the hospital. There are reports about the old murders from 18 years ago on my computer" said Sawada.

Airi's mother met her in the hospital room. "I'm positive Satoru didn't do any of the things they are accusing him of. During the fire he came in to rescue me. I don't know that they are asking you Oka-san, but they think I might be an accomplice and are hiding their suspicion from me. Not being believe hurts the most. When I think about people not believing Satoru… I think of…" said Airi trailing off thinking about her father.

"Airi… even now I wonder if I shouldn't gone after him. I wish I could have believed him even if I had my doubts. It's all right. I believe you Airi" said her mother.

Airi crept out of the hospital, obvious to the fact that she was being trailed by someone much more competent than the last (obvious) tail.

Meanwhile, Satoru focused on the three murders. "I think Shiratori Jun suspects his own father of being the killer. Regarding an alibi, it's possible his continued refusal to say anything that might incriminate his father only made himself look worse" said one of Sawada's note.

"A classmate saw Hinazuki Kayo and Shiratori Jun together three times in the three weeks before her disappearance. Fujinuma Satoru's testimony was deliberately ignored" said another note.

Satoru examined a list of the final suspects. There were 9, only Yuuki and his father were recognized by Satoru. "The police suspected the criminal who killed Sugita Hiromi lived close to his school. Three hours after the time Hiromi left school, he was allegedly seen by Fujinuma Satoru, a classmate, and their friend Kazu from a distance in a car with a nondescript adult. Face recognition through a window of a car stopped at a light is not reliable, but all three did agree it was Hiromi. In addition, the classmate that did not know Hiromi well was able to give the same identification as Hiromi's friends" said a third note.

This was interesting. Satoru didn't remember this in the first time the murders took place. In fact, since he was kicked to the present, he was unable to recall any differences between the original timeline and the modified one. He realized he had delayed Hinazuki's death, but hastened Hiromi's demise… by three whole weeks. He was therefore unable to remember altered details and had to go on reports. In the original timeline, police suspect Hiromi was murdered because he was mistaken for a girl. This was because the first victim was one, and Jack the Ripper, the British Serial Killer who defined serial killings, killed females. With Satoru's interventions, the interpretation of the killings had changed from believing Hiromi was mistaken for a girl to that the killer probably lived nearby. The criminal did not kill Hiromi just to throw the police off his trail. "Perhaps Hiromi was already a defined target?" thought Satoru.

Yuuki was arrested after talking to a third grade girl who was walking alone. Pictures of Hiromi after his death were inside the family freezer and pornography was found in his room. Satoru remembered Yuuki talking about how those were given to him. The police concluded he had pedophilic tendencies. From this point on, the focus of the investigation was turned towards him. Therefore no attempts at discovering an intruder gaining access to the Shiratori business.

Satoru examined incidents Sawada had been investigating. Serial killings in Japan were rare. Homicide was usually done out of revenge, monetary reasons, honor, or other such reasons. The American FBI had more extensive information on serial killings. They defined a serial killer as one who made 4 separate homicidal incidents (one gunman killing several people is on incident) done with no intentional witnesses to the killings and no monetary gain (automatically excluding robbery, tuft wars, and assassination). This distinction was not arbitrary because serial killers tended to think differently than other murderers. More information was available since they had 30 times as many serial killings per homicide and more homicide and crime to begin with. 75% of the American serial killings targeted females like Jack the Ripper and all but one were committed by males, not much of a surprise given that homicides are generally done by men.

Within the last 18 years, Sawada had identified a cluster of serial killing incidents he believed to be done by the same suspect. The other three serial killing incidents in the same 18 years were deemed separate. In the cluster, there were 10 done in slightly over 7 years and over an area 100 kilometers wide. Hinazuki Kayo, Suita Hiromi, and Nakanishi Aya were the second incident. This was 70 kilometers from the center of the area, which seemed as uniform as 10 dots could be. Most of the incidents involved three victims, but three involved more and one as many as 10. All but 3 incidents were done in June. In 7 cases the culprit was supposedly stopped. In 7 of those cases, only females were killed. An eleventh incident around the Chiba area was identified in the present. Three victims were claimed so far, although the children were known to be missing, but not confirmed dead. It seemed after Hinazuki, the criminal was certainly active, assuming these strings of crimes were committed by the same person.

He looked up a robbery that happened in the next town over. It happened slightly before the serial killings. A policewoman brought a gun to the crime scene and lost it. This may be useful.

Sawada reached the hospital and searched for Airi. He ran past the policemen with a bathroom excuse. Three minutes later he doubled back. The guards did not have line of sight to the door.

"Please pardon my manners Katagiri Airi-kun" said Sawada.

"You're not Fujinuma Satoru-san are you?" said the figure under the sheets.

"I agree. I'm his ally Sawada" said Sawada.

The figure rose. "Nice to meet you. I'm Airi's mother" she said. The family resemblance was obvious.

Satoru sat back in Sawada's office. Suddenly, Airi's phone rang. It was from a phone booth.

"Thank goodness, you had it on!" said Airi.

"Airi? Are you OK?" asked Satoru.

"Yeah, I'm as good as new. More importantly, can I see you? At the usual place?" said Airi.

"No stay away from there! If we meet at all, we need to wait at least seven days for some heat to die down. Besides, I don't want to involve you…" said Satoru.

"It's OK, I'll go alone" said Airi, hanging up. Satoru was frustrated. He didn't doubt that is what Airi meant, but this could easily end in disaster.

Satoru made his way towards the bridge. "The killer may have been threatening her. Getting Airi involved will only make things worse for her" he thought. He saw some boys playing with a Styrofoam thrown model plane. They were having difficulties getting it to go very far.

Satoru grabbed the plane and started adjusting the main wings. "I'm sure it will fly now" said Satoru, handing it back to the boy. The boy gave it a hard throw and the toy glided gracefully. They ran after it. "That's flying too far. Cool!" said the other boy.

A pair of women was staring at Satoru with odd looks. "Isn't it strange for an adult to be here with kids at this time of the day?" said one.

"Was this what people thought of Yuuki-san?" thought Satoru. He made his way to the bridge. He waited half an hour.

Airi approached the underside of the Bridge. "I'm here Satoru-san. As promised, I came here alone" said Airi.

"Yeah. I'm ashamed for thinking it might be a police trap" said Satoru. He wondered it was best that he said that out loud.

"You better think that way" said Airi laughing "You're a fugitive. But I'm glad you trust me."

Satoru explained his suspicions that the criminal went behind the pizza shop counter.

"I think this Nishizono guy seems fishy" said Airi.

"Nishizono?" said Satoru.

"I've seen him three times. Anyone a friend of the manager can get to the staff room, so that doesn't narrow down the suspects as much as you might have thought.. The manager treats him with respect and based on his badge, I'd say he's a city councilman. He would've been able to see the shift schedule and it's not unlikely he knew where I lived. I've met him before" said Airi.

Satoru thought back to the three lists of suspects. The first was on the disappearance of Hinazuki. The next was after her body was found and before the disappearance of Hiromi. The third was after the disappearance of Hiromi. Nishizono was not any of them. "Was it a fake name? But a city council member can't use a fake name" thought Satoru.

"I think he targeted me because I knew his face" said Airi.

Satoru had the clues, but they were not piecing together. He put his hand to his head. Was it even possible to clear his name?

"Satoru-san, I know how you feel, but you can't let yourself get beat up over it" said Airi.

"I have unfinished business from a long time ago" said Satoru. Airi expressed interest. "It's an idea I had for a manga story. A scheduling mistake that results in the death of a child is made by a Shinigami. He struggles to put things back the way they were, but the more he acts, the more other people involved suffer. Even if he means to do the right thing, when he gets mixed up in it, other people get hurt" said Satoru. Unnoticed by Satoru, the toy plane from earlier was floating down the channel. Airi saw it, but didn't realize Satoru's attempts at cheering the boys up made them lose their plane since he made it fly without telling them how to keep it.

"It's like you right now, Satoru-san?" said Airi.

"Don't you think so Airi-kun?"

"I you mean me, I disagree. For one thing, I'm not hurt. The stuff about other people is just the Shinigami's impression. I think he Shinigami should have more faith in himself. If you can avoid getting caught I'm sure what's ahead of you is all progress. The conclusion is still up ahead and nobody knows what it is yet" said Airi, moving her hands from wrapped around the knees like she had been during his story about the Shinigami to holding her index fingers and thumbs and forming a picture frame aimed at the bridge.

"Airi, I'm glad we met today" said Satoru.

"Eh?" said Airi turning towards Satoru with a small blush.

Lots of footsteps were heard. Three men in suits appeared 2 meters in front of Satoru. Oh, their ties were clip-ons. "Fujinuma Satoru, I presume?" said one, brandishing an ID. Plain cloths policemen or detectives. Satoru could see a police car in the distance and uniformed cops, one brandishing a gun and most with nightsticks and steel nets.

"Satoru-san…" said Airi, reaching up.

"Don't interfere!" said another cop, shoving Airi in the breast to the ground.

"Airi!" said Satoru reaching out. The third nearby plain cloths cop grasped his hand. Satoru moved forward and did a hip throw on the cop. Another one drew a pistol. Satoru shoved one into the drawn one causing him to lose grip. Satoru grabbed the pistol, and removed the safety.

Instead of aiming, he used the butt of the pistol to hit the cop that shoved Airi. He then tossed the pistol forward and raised his hands. "I'm the one you want, not her" said Satoru.

The first cop handcuffed Satoru and told him the charges. Satoru looked at Airi, defeated. As Satoru was being led to the police car, Airi struggled forward while being pulled back by a uniformed (different) cop.

"Why? Satoru-san didn't do it! He would never do it. Satoru-san!" screamed Airi.

"Either through being arrested or Revival, I was prepared for my relationship with Airi to end. And here it is, the last time I'll see her. The thing I should do right now is…" thought Satoru sadly.

"Satoru-san! I'm sorry! I bet they followed me here. I said I would come alone… I'm sorry. I'm sorry" sobbed Airi.

"What would a hero say at a time like this?" thought Satoru. "Isn't it hard fighting alone?" he recalled his younger self asking an actor for his favorite anime superhero.

"Airi, you've got it wrong. I can still hang in there because you believe in me. Thank you Airi-chan. I'm glad I trusted you" said Satoru turning back to Airi with a smile. He let himself be led away.

"Come on, Revival, come here. If Sawada is correct, you got me in trouble when you caused Ka-san to see the killer. Revival got me into this mess, Revival should give me a chance to get out" thought Satoru. He said this to himself three times.

Suddenly, he saw a figure behind a policeman. It was Nishizono! Satoru remembered him leaving his apartment. The criminal smiled. "Let me got! He's the one who framed me. Let me see his face and then you can take me away to trial! Let me see his face!" screamed Satoru, losing his cool and attempting to charge the criminal. Three cops held him, but the adrenaline was pushing. He inched forward a centimeter every second. A blue butterfly was bearly in the corner of Satoru's vision and unnoticed by him. Had he continued being led away, h would have seen it flying around the area and going as high as the bridge.

Author's note: I probably should have metnioend this before, but I'm doing something a bit different. The normal fanfiction can be followed by those who view the hole soruce mateiral. This story I'm attmepting to make is supposed to be easy to follow with anyone who simply read the wikipedia article. This has a side effect of making this story a complete (hopefully decent) story rather than an add on. Astute readers might notice differences here comapred to canon, and they are going to increase.


	7. Chapter 7

Failure to Track

Fujinuma Satoru opened his eyes. It was clear that Revival had sent him back. Satoru needed to check to make sure he was indeed as far back as he thought he was. A quick check of the surroundings revealed his old room. While there was no meter stick or anything exactly one meter to measure his height, he knew he was in the correct year. His mother was alive at least. Satoru turned on the lights and proceeded towards the dining room, bumping into something in his disorientation/

"Satoru? It's three in the morning" said his mom.

"Sorry Oka-san. Did I wake you up?" said Satoru.

"No, you didn't make a lot of noise. I had a lot of my mind from work lately and I decided to ponder now of all times. You need to go to sleep. Tomorrow is Friday and you shouldn't be late for school" said Satoru's mom.

Satoru crept back into bed.

February 26th 1988

Satoru didn't clearly remember what he did the previous time he was met with this date. He vaguely remembered he agreed to meet Hinazuki Kayo at the museum in the weekend. This was probably the first immediate important event that happened. Satoru would have some free time to plan something. The question was if it should be different or the same. Deviating immediately will lead to unpredictability. Not deviating will result in Hinazuki's death. Revival didn't appear to follow the normal rules. Satoru should not have been taken back to the present. In fact, he was not entirely sure what happened that time because there was not the blue butterfly and his head didn't get that strange feeling going forward. Normally going back Revival gives a strange feeling for a short duration. The fact that it was 1988 and his birthday was coming up was not in doubt.

"Satoru! Can you answer this question?" said Yashiro-sensei.

"Yes!" said Satoru. He got up to the board and wrote down the answer to the math problem.

"Good job. If I didn't know better, I would say your thoughts were elsewhere instead of working on it" said Yashiro-sensei. The quick correct answer was characteristic of someone who knew the answer by the time one reached for the chalk. While his impression of Satoru was that he wasn't paying attention, it was not obvious to Yashiro that Satoru worked it out while walking up.

Satoru refocused on the lesson. He had decided on deviating as little as possible, so that the key events will happen the same way. At lunch break he started to work on another way to deal with the problem. "Getting Hinazuki to survive past X-day or March 1st was inadequate. What am I missing? There has to be a way to avoid her death without discovering the criminal. Since Yuuki is the scapegoat, the most direct way to approach this is to simply get Hinazuki to survive to X-day and afterwards supply Yuuki with an alibi. Assuming the killer is smart enough to check on Yuuki before doing the deep, this should save Yuuki and Hinazuki. With one simple change I win" thought Satoru. The lunch was tasteless to Satoru. It might have been due to his deflated mood after failing the first time, being deep in thought, or that it was actually tasteless. Satoru was careful to pay enough attention to his friends to reply to their conversation without him initiating any thoughts.

"As long as I appear to behave the same way to Hinazuki, Yuuki, Hinazuki's mother, and the killer, no important changes will happen. Since the Hinazukis don't know me too well and I only meet Yuuki one more time, this should be easy" thought Satoru.

"On the other hand, I can attempt to change multiple things to throw the killer off. This will be risk and unpredictable, but I don't know if I have any more Revivals left. If I don't, then conservative measures are paradoxically risky since they are the most likely to not change the Status Quo while unpredictability is likely to either help or backfire" he continued.

Satoru prepared to leave school. He had a backup plan in action. "Satoru-kun" said Hiromi.

"What?" said Satoru.

"Would you like to come over tonight with Kazu for dinner? We have salmon and steak tips for dinner."

"Ummm… sure" said Satoru. There was something not quite right with what Hiromi said, but he didn't pay too much attention to it. Satoru was in a hurry and he planned to be back in town to meet Yuuki anyways.

Satoru hurried over to the next town. In 2006, he had read some local crime reports up to the serial killings. Satoru remembered a policewoman who lost a gun while investigating a robbery. She had gotten reprehended, but no other punish. Satoru found this odd as carrying guns when not going to a confrontation was nonstandard in Japan unlike America (which had a lot more total crime).

Satoru got off the bus and hurried over to an address. He saw three cops at a house. One of them appeared to be talking to the owner. A window was open and the living room was visibly stripped. A couch stood oddly on the lawn, as if abandoned. Satoru saw a black wavy haired policewoman picking something nearby a tree. A thin brown haired man walked by and took a small pouch and a revolver and continued walking as if nothing happened.

"Sorry for the bump" said the man.

"Policework. Don't touch anything. Uzumaki-sempai, did you forget to keep people and tiher ungloved hands away/"

"You volunteered for it today Sakura-chan" said another officer.

"What an idiot" thought Satoru.

Removing something from a pick-pocket would be difficult. Ironically, the petty thief was wearing the kind of pants that made him a good target. Unfortunately for Satoru, sleight of hand was not something he had.

The most likely course of action would be to follow the brown haired pickpocket. If he bumped into something, the loose bag he had the policewoman's small pouch and gun could be dislodged. Satoru looked at his watch. The worst case scenario was that he would run out of time and have to catch a bus back.

Following the man's shadow he got on and off another bus and into a bar past a bouncer. Satoru watched the man sit with three others and they got themselves sloshed really quickly. Satoru relieved the man of the bag. It contained the handgun, the pouch, and some cash that wasn't there before. The pouch contained bullets in cartridges. A total of 19 shots. Satoru crept away. Suddenly, he bumped into someone.

"What are you doing?" said a burly man. Satoru took an examination of his surroundings. Three lamps were loosely suspended from the ceiling, broken off their main supports, and swung easily. There was the smell of vinegar, beer, and wine. The clothing of many of the patrons looked in disrepair. The large guy in front of him looked like a hobo and a table appeared to have Yakuza. One woman was wearing suggestive clothing. Satoru realized this was not just a bar, but a bar where criminals likely hung out. Satoru then realized the man was still talking.

"I said apologize when you bump into people midget!" said the man, giving a forceful shove to Satoru's hip. He spun and fell to his knees.

"Cool it" said the bartender rushing over, leaving a hand on the man's shoulder.

"ID?" said another large man. This guy was the bouncer.

"I'll be going now…" said Satoru. The bouncer grabbed Satoru, surprising him since he was on his way out after all. "I was born on March 2nd, 1977. That makes me 29" said Satoru, going for a joke.

"And stay out kid!" said the bouncer, tossing Satoru 3 or 4 meters out of the door. He landed into a large snowdrift in the parking lot not properly cleared. Satoru was cold and to his surprise not really hurt from the toss. Satoru picked himself up.

Satoru walked over to a public payphone and told his mother about staying for Hiromi's for dinner. His mother was surprised, but accepting. Satoru had spent 3 hours since he got on the first bus.

Satoru got on and off another bus. He went to their hideout and took a shovel. Satoru dug out a hole in the snow and then 3 centimeters into the dirt. He put the gun and pouch in and put the dirt back on, creating a small mound. After that was the grass, which was haphazard with thin and thick patches anyways, and then the snow. Satoru believed that giving Yuuki an alibi was all that was necessary. He hoped to be able to defeat the killer without needing to discover the killer, much less a confrontation. This was only some insurance, one he hoped to never use. An American tourist he delivered pizza to once said that bringing an umbrella in a rainy season stopped the rain.

Satoru put the shove back into the hideout and ran off to meet Yuuki in the park. Satoru waved to him. Yuuki would ask "How are you Satoru-kun?" "Is Kayo-chan doing fine?" (this was probably an addition made by Satoru's changes the first time) and "Did you get to skate in school this week?" Satoru made sure to keep his answers the same. The race with Hamada was a bit over a week before, but it seemed like a month. Satoru wondered if the pressure was causing him to cave. After all, even taking into consideration the time he spent in 2006, that didn't even add 5 days!

Satoru reached Hiromi's house. The meal was enjoyable and he was laughing with Hiromi and Kazu as they watched a tape. Anime that was funny in 1988 was still funny even as a 29 year old. "It's been a long time, but even now that scene is funny" said Satoru. He realized he just said that out loud.

"Satoru? It's only three weeks old" said Kazu.

"I'm just happy to spend time with all of you" said Satoru. More than the funny scene, he was just happy to spend some time with his friends. Originally Hiromi was doomed. Satoru's attempts to save Hinazuki just led to Hiromi dying earlier. By the time Satoru was a 3rd year in middle school, he greatly shut down from other students and even drifted away from Kazu. Satoru was afraid of exposing his heart as an adult because even then, he wasn't sure there was anything left in him. If Satoru miscalculated again, Hinazuki would be dead and he needed to focus on saving Hiromi.

After dinner, Satoru realized in his enjoyment, he failed to notice something wrong. "Was there anything in particular that led you to invite me over?"

"Nothing in particular. Kazu was coming over anyways and he sort of mentioned the ideal yesterday but was short of suggesting it. Hiromi doesn't know really. Maybe you need to wind down?" said Hiromi. Satoru considered that subconsciously the others had wanted to hang out with him anyways and something he did this morning made the push for Hiromi to act on Kazu's idea.

"It must have been appearing to space out in class while I was thinking about the situation. I must be careful not to alter the behavior of the four key players in this tragedy like I did with Hiromi. The Hinazukis don't know me too well Kazu and the gang, everything is the same to Yuuki, and the killer hasn't been in a position to see me do anything different, so I havn't blown anything yet. I'll save Hinazuki. Defiantly this time. It doesn't have to be graceful, but I can't have any regrets. Because if I fail, I'm not getting another chance. This is probably my Final Revival..." he thought.

Satoru arrived at home while his mother was finishing dinner. He wiped away a single tear. "Oka-san, remember this. If you go to Tokyo or Chiba, you can go to Ueno without changing trains" said Satoru.

"What's that's supposed to mean?" wandered his mom out loud.

February 27th, 1988

Satoru arrived at the science center. He remembered his comments about the exhibits he made and followed his script right up to the planetarium. From that point on Satoru mostly improvised, knowing he didn't say too many detailed things afterwards and if he stayed with the same mood it would probably be OK. Satoru's friends arrived to greet them and after a short duration the group wandered off. Snow decorated the ground below the bare trees. There were enough trees that 75% of the area under them would be in shade in the summer if it was directly above. A concrete path left from the building back to the rest of the community.

"Man, I'm starving" said Kazu.

"Wanna get a bite?" said Hiromi.

"I don't have any money" said Osamu.

"Even without that stupid incident Saturday, I guess I have quite a bit of money" thought Satoru. "I have plenty of money, more than enough" said Satoru. He realized he just said that out loud. "I just got my allowance" he continued. That was true. "Why don't we have okonomiykai on me?" finished Satoru.

"Nice Satoru" said Kazu.

"All right!" said Hiromi.

Hinazuki made a weak smile. She wasn't displeased at this, but not nearly as happy as the others. Satoru wondered if she wasn't hungry, but just happy for the company. After all this hard work to prevent any differences from propping up, he ended up taking her with the group for a snack. "Oh well. It's only part of a group and not directed to her, so it shouldn't change her actions that much. In fact, since she doesn't know me too well or my typical behavior, most deviations should be safe" thought Satoru.

Kenya turned back towards Satoru and Hinazuki. "By the way Satoru, did you read the book I lent you a few weeks back? Poe's 'The Switched Man.'" said Kenya

"Sorry. I haven't read it yet" said Satoru. "I don't remember that. A book he lent me 18 years ago… it had to have been before the 8th. I don't remember him lending me anything since that Revival, which seems so long ago" thought Satoru.

"The story's really interesting. Read it when you get home" said Kenya.

February 28th, 1988

To his surprise, in early afternoon, Satoru got a call from Kenya and Kazu, conference style. Kenya started the call. They were mostly talking about some of the latest NES games. Kenya and Kazu made most of the long statements while Satoru mostly said "yes" "no" "that's cool" or occasionally a few sentences in a comment. Closer to the end of the conversation, Kenya three times asked Satoru about random things. One of them was about a school sponsored trip rumored to have happened to the 6th years for three years in a row. Another was about homework, which surprised Satoru since he didn't remember Kenya needing his help, even if it was for confirmation of a correct answer. The third was about a trip to Tokyo Satoru, Hiromi, Kazu, and his family went to three years before.

"Aside from the heat, that was pretty fun. Satoru-kun, you seem a bit detached about it" said Kazu.

"Did I remember something wrong?" said Satoru.

"No, you answered Kenya's question right and that was more or less how we spent the last day. It just sounds like… you were almost an observer. Ah, it must be the conference calling. Oh, that's three hours already. See you later" said Kazu.

"Satoru-kun… never mind. Bye" said Kenya.

Satoru had to struggle to pull out memories that were effectively 21 years old. Since he had nearly shut down emotionally in his adolescence, Satoru was attempting to answer as fast as possible, his mind was not fully focused on the conversation, the degradation of sound quality, and the fog of time, it must have seem to them that he sounded a bit detached.

February 29th, 1988

Satoru arrived at the Hinazuki household and walked her to school. "February 29th, 1988, the day before Hinazuki Kayo becomes the first victim of the serial killings. It's the third time I met this day" thought Satoru.

"Satoru-kun's got guts!" said Hiromi, noticing them holding hands.

Satoru turned to almost face Hiromi (turning fully back while walking forward would be awkward). "That's what he said last time, albeit a day early now"

During a break, Satoru approached Kenya.

"Kenya, sorry. I guess I lost the book you lent me" said Satoru. "I don't remember you giving it to me this year" said Satoru. He realized he just said that out loud. Since it was February, it would not have looked that out of the ordinary.

"Satoru, can I talk to you in the hall? Don't worry about the book. It never existed" said Satoru's blond friend. Satoru was confused. He thought Kenya must have lent him the book some time before February 8th 1988 and just as Kenya advised him to read the student compositions, the poem would not only be interesting but relate to Hinazuki's situation. The boys went to the hall.

"Satoru, let me say this first. Recently… how can I put it? I've seen you being serious and it makes me happy. Before you used to pretend, even though you didn't care a lot about other people outside our circle. You did the best you could then, in your own right, but I like you better now. Except I want an answer to this nagging suspicion I have" said Kenya as he walked three steps below the mid staircase landing. He turned around dramatically. "Satoru… who are you?" said Kenya.

"Fujinuma…" mumbled Satoru as he his mouth was hanging slightly open and his eyes widened looked in a mixture of fascination and horror.

"It's like you've become another person. Or more like another personality was added. I realized the week I saw you looking at Hinazuki. I'd notice Hinazuki's cuts and bruises a long time ago. But I couldn't do anything. I always just looked on at a distance. And yet you addressed the issue right in front of my eyes. It was like a will that said 'This is what you're gonna do' had possessed your body and put me to shame too" said Kenya, starting to cry. "Satoru… please, who the hell are you?" pleaded Kenya.

Satoru thought about his mom Sachiko, who was killed at the "beginning" of this whole surreal dream. Calling it was nightmare was not entirely accurate since she was alive in 1988 and Satoru was with her. He thought about the actor of his anime superhero giving encouragement. "I'm a superhero" he said confidently. Satoru's eyes went from Kenya's to the staircase below them. "Or at least I want to be"

"Tch. Ha ha ha heh ha. You're Satoru after all" laughed Kenya. After they calmed down, Satoru explained some of the situation.

"Kenya, Hinazuki is going to be murdered. I saw where she's physically abused. I swear I will stop it next time" said Satoru.

"Satoru, you don't become a superhero after achieving results. You already are one. Let me help you. I want to become one too, a superhero" said Kenya, reaching out his hand Satoru took it.

The two of them walked into class confidently. As they opened the door, everyone was sitting down and turned their heads towards them. "Satoru, Kenya… stand in the hallway with those buckets. Fill them" said Yashiro-sensei. They had been playing hooky for longer than they thought. A trio of student form different parts of the class started giggling and a most were grinning.

"I knew I should have said he was overthinking things about Satoru instead of confirming what he told me he saw" said Kazu, face palming. Satoru filled the buckets labeled "5-4" and brought them over. They walked out and the class laughed again.

"Superheroes often get the short end of the stick" said Kenya as they walked out.

"Tell me about it" thought Satoru, thinking about his hospitalization. The two of them were embarrassed and their eyes and mouths made a cat impression.

After school, Satoru started an intel gathering operation. While he wanted to avoid talking to Yuuki unnecessarily, he needed to know. "Hiromi, Kenya, Hinazuki, will you wait for me at the children's center?" said Satoru. "I want Yuuki-san to have an alibi" he thought as he ran.

Satoru arrived and got invited to Yuuki's room. "Hey Yuuki-san, is your dad's bedroom on the first floor" said Satoru.

"Y-yeah. Facing the main street. Why?" said Yuuki.

"Oh, I was thinking it was probably noisy at night… Yuuki-san, d you sometimes see Hinazuki Kayo?" said Satoru.

"W-why?" said Yuuki.

"Recently, she's become a supporting part of our group" said Satoru.

"R-really? No wonder I haven't seen her around for several days… Yes! Kayo-chan! That's the best damn result" said Yuuki.

Satoru left the Shiratori house and moved to join the others. "I'm sure the real killer saw Yuuki with Hinazuki and decided to use him as a patsy. Yuuki-san wait for me. I'm gonna prevent the murder from happening" he thought.

Satoru arrived but didn't see anyone at the room he was expecting. "Hinazuki, Kenya, Hiromi?" he called out. He noticed a note that they were in the next room. He saw the gang playing basketball. Satoru joined them. "I guess three people can't play Othello. I have to be careful about these unnecessary changes. Otherwise I won't be able to make predictions through March 2nd" thought Satoru.

March 2nd 1988

Satoru and Hinazuki entered his house. Confetti and streamers landed on them. "Satoru, Hinazuki. Happy Birthday!" said his friends. Satoru knew he needed to alter the future at this point. Three hours into the party, he started his plan. "I forgot something at school" he said.

Satoru went over to the Shiratori household. He wrote a note with his gloves on, attached it to a rock, throwing it into Yuuki's father's room and breaking he window. Satoru grinned. "This way the police will serve as Yuuki's alibi for tonight. Since the killer is calculated enough to set Yuuki with gay pron and his rubber shoes, this alone should stop the murder" thought Satoru.

Once this was over, Satoru prepared his final touch. As he walked Hinazuki home, he had a basic plan, and if it went wrong he could probably improvise form there. "Hinazuki… can I abduct you right now?" said Satoru.

"Are you an idiot?" said Hinazuki.

"Yeah. This is the only thing I can think of" said Satoru.

"Sure" said the red cladded girl.

Satoru dropped Hinazuki off at the bus. He and his firned spalyed some cards with her and filed out to their homes.


	8. Walking foward Blind

Walking Forward Blind

March 3rd 1988

Hinazuki awoke to someone entering the bus. "Is that Satoru?" she thought. A figure entered. "No… while it's true we stopped using the triple knock signal, it's too big" The figure's hips were basically at her eye level. Hinazuki made herself small in the blanket. The new squatter dropped a backpack and kicked a box violently, his fellow squatter.

March 4th 1988

Fujinuma Satoru woke up to prepare to resupply Hinazuki. He wondered if he should prepare a crude outhouse. Using Izumi Elementry's bathroom would not work on Sunday. Satoru smelled the grease of sausage and heard the sizzling o cooking. "Good morning" said Satoru. After getting a reply from his mother "what are you doing up so early?" he asked.

"What am I doing? Isn't it obvious? You're going to school early again aren't you?" said Satoru's mom.

"Yeah" said Satoru. Satoru took a seat and waited for breakfast to be set up. "Thanks for the food" he said. Satoru started chomping down.

"You don't need to rush. Satoru, can I ask you a frank question?" said Sachiko.

"Go ahead" said Satoru.

"Who are you meeting this early in the morning?" asked Sachiko.

"It's a secret" said Satoru not really interested.

"You're not doing anything bad are you?" said Sachiko.

"No" said Satoru with a smile. He was a man, or a boy, with a mission and he was going to get it done.

"OK then" said Sachiko. S

Satoru grabbed his bag and attached the Velcro on his shoes. "See you Later" said Satoru.

"Leaving so early, you'll be hungry before lunch" said his mom, holding out a bento.

Satoru grabbed it. This was oddly convenient. "Right. Thanks Oka-san" said Satoru. He rushed off. He approached the bus. Satoru did the triple knock he originally told Hinazuki to listen to, even though he didn't when he came over with Hiromi. "Hinazuki, good morning" said Satoru.

"Morning Satoru" said Hinazuki sounding relieved.

"Here is breakfast Hinazuki. I already ate" said Satoru.

"Wow…" said Hinazuki opening it. There were eggrolls, rice, sausage bits, and some fruits.

"If only I could get a TV in here. It must be boring. This should only take another day I guess" said Satoru.

"It's all right" said Hinazuki. She finished the meal. "That was good. Satoru, I have something complicated to tell you"

"Sorry, I can't be late for school. I jaywalked past cars at least three times yesterday. I'll see you after school after getting something" said Satoru.

Hinazuki waved Satoru bye. She then noticed a note with the bento. "I put in all of my son's favorite things –Fujinuma Satoru" said the note.

Satoru scaled a fence using the branches of a nearby tree as an extra foothold. "The kids from Izumi Elementary are already coming. Maybe I spent too much time here" he thought.

Satoru approached a crosswalk and saw two kids walking towards him, or rather towards the school. "I don't want to give the farewell address at the graduation ceremony" said a brown haired girl in long twintails.

"Really?" said a larger girl in dark hair.

"You're better at public speaking, Aya" said the first girl.

"It'll be fine. I know you can do it Saki-chan. Just have a little more courage" said the dark haired girl.

Satoru failed to notice a nametag on the girl's red backpack. If he wasn't in a hurry, he might have known she was killed in the original 1988. Satoru managed to arrive in time to his school. Yashiro noted out loud Hinazuki's absence. This time, the classmates were speculating too.

"Fujinuma, you haven't heard anything?" said Misato, a girl he antagonized a few weeks ago.

"No, she wasn't at her house this morning either" said Satoru. Given his attention on the "missing" girl was fairly obvious since February 29th and he was seen walking her to school, he wasn't surprised to be asked that.

"Maybe she's got a cold? I wonder what's up with Hinazuki. Satoru, your big plan wasn't to make her catch a cold was it?" said Kazu.

"Yeah, and the school hasn't been contacted? That's strange" said Kenya. Kazu looked at Kenya strangely. Satoru hoped Kazu wouldn't voice his suspicions. Kazu's might have been off the mark, but since he saw what Satoru tried to do on the 2nd, if he guessed Kenya, the third person in their talk, was hiding something might be able to make him guess.

Other students started voicing their opinions. One commented how nice it would be to stay home all the time. It was noticed she occasionally had irregular absences. Yashiro-sensei clapped his hands to get the attention of the class. "Well, we're talking about Kayo here. She may show up when we least expect it. But shall we begin class" said the teacher.

Once school was over, Satoru went over to the staff room to brief Yashiro-sensei. "You stopped by her house yesterday morning? You must be worried" said Yashiro-sensei.

"Yeah" said Satoru.

"But you seem relatively calm about it. Is she just sick and hiding it?" said Yashiro-sensei.

"It's just like you always say. At a time like this, you should stay as calm as usual" said Satoru.

"That's true. I tried calling Kayo's house yesterday and today, but no one answered. Yesterday I tired her mother's work, but she's absent there" said Yashiro-sensei.

Satoru leaned forward. At his full height, he was slightly below Yashiro's head in the sitting position. "Sensei! Would you call the police or Child Consultation Center?" said Satoru.

"The police… if I called the police wouldn't it cause someone trouble?" said Yashiro-sensei, looking at Satoru seriously. Satoru went from a forward lean to upright. He might have given too much away. Yashiro-sensei smiled. "I called the Child Consultation Center today. Even if this incident is nothing, it's a good pretext and they can interview the Hinazukis personally. It seems they are coming today. I'll go with them to kayo's house. The root of the problem is probably there. 'Doing your best is the key to everything' another one of my pet expressions" said Yashiro-sensei.

"Thanks sensei!" said Satoru with a smile. He rushed off.

"So Yashiro was already moving behind the scenes… allright. I got this! Now just to get some extra materials" thought Satoru as he left school. Kenya was busy but Kazu and Hiromi offered to carry stuff to the hideout. Satoru arrived at an electronics store. OK, he just needed a way to keep Hinazuki occupied. Satoru bought a CD Walkman. Satoru couldn't believe he found one of these in 1988. He expected a cassette player, perhaps his memory didn't serve him too well. Actually, considering he needed to listen to his friends' conversations to remember their surnames, it wasn't too surprising details were forgotten. Oh, he didn't really know what Hinazuki liked. Satoru grabbed a CD with traditional music that would be in place in the Sengoku Period, a modern opera house, or maybe a historical drama. Satoru was ready to go. His friends were waiting at the store exit.

"An NES… well, I have money anyways. Super Mario Bros was a classic. But the bus has no power… ah, this should fix that" thought Satoru. Satoru loaded an NES, the game cartridge, a power strip, and 3 extension cords. The extension cords were 112 meters, 15 meters, and 45 meters long and all cords were capable of 15 amp currents. Satoru then added a portable waterproof tape recorder to his supplies.

As he purchased the heavy extras, Satoru realized he went on an impulse spending again. True, it was supported by the windfall from a thief, but in 2006, he never bought on impulse, and he had a credit card at that time.

"I'm done Kazu, Hiromi. I guess I got more than I set out to get" said Satoru.

"It's pretty heavy. I don't know what you were thinking when you said you wanted to buy this alone" said Kazu.

"I feel really silly and kind of embarrassed. I don't really know what was going on in my head. I did the same thing multiple times when buying food for my birthday" said Satoru. He realized he just said that out loud.

"Satoru-kun… if this is for who I think it's for, I don't think there is an outlet near that bus" said Hiromi. Satoru did a facepalm when he realized Hiromi was correct. The trio dragged the purchases to the hideout. Satoru's friends gave their farewells and Satoru prepared for his mission. He took the CD Walkman and music CD and rushed off.

Later that night, two CCC workers and Yashiro approached the Hinazuki household. "Hinazuki-san! We're with the Ishikari Development Bureau" said one man ringing the doorbell. "No one's coming" said the man.

"The lights are on, so someone's probably home" said a woman.

"Shall we check around the back?" said Yashiro-sensei. They circled the house. "Hinazuki-san! Are you home? Kayo!" he said. There was a pause. "Excuse me!" he continued, opening the door.

"Sensei!" said the woman.

"It's okay. I'll take responsibility" said Yashiro-sensei. It was trespassing.

"Sounds like she's been missing for three days. Let's trust him" said the bureau man. Inside the house was a mess. There were clothing and trash strewn around the living areas. This was stereotypical of abusive families… and the plan generic messy ones.

"The lights and stove are on. The recent remains for a meal of one. Kayo's coat is gone. Her mother was here at least, up until moments ago. I bet the mother escaped off the balcony right when we got here" said Yashiro.

"How did she manage to do that while carrying her child? I guess it doesn't matter. Rats. I wanted to at least take the daughter into custody" said the bureau man.

"Let's try again tomorrow. I don't think the mother's coming back while we're here. I have a feeling Kayo is safe" said Yashiro-sensei.

Meanwhile, Satoru was listening to the conversation. He crept away. Later that night, Satoru, Hiromi, and Kenya arrived at the bus. "People from the Child Consultation Center went to your house. Yashiro-sensei too. Your mother wasn't home. I think this can be resolved today or tomorrow. At the end of the week at the very least. Kayo, you'll be separated from your mother" said Satoru.

"Nothing could make me happier" said Hinazuki in a deadpan, almost emotionless voice. The boys knew that if successful, they wouldn't see Hinazuki for a long time, if ever. "I'll be fine. Whenever I think of you guys, I'll get a warm feeling inside. Satoru, this is late… but here is your birthday present. Here" said Hinazuki handing out gloves.

Satoru remembered one previous March 2nd, the first time he had the full party, Hinazuki said "I'll give you your present tomorrow. That's a promise." She entered her house and never got to fulfill that promise.

"Thank you" said Satoru. "This moment… it feels like I've waited forever" thought Satoru, despite being little over 2 weeks ago from his perspective... Satoru cried a little bit as he thought about the promise that, this time, wasn't made.

"I didn't realize you were so easily moved Satoru" said Kenya. Satoru realized he was crying.

"Ah… I got something for you to spend the time" said Satoru, presenting the CD Walkman. "It's mine, but you can use it to pass the time here"

"Oh yeah, Satoru. Stay where tonight" said Hinazuki.

The trio of boys was stunned. Hiromi and Satoru blushed. "Ehhh! That's gutsy" said Hiromi.

"No, not like that" said Hinazuki, not bothered by the misinterpretation. "Somebody came here late last night. I was scared"

"The school janitor?" suggested Kenya.

"Did someone lend you their dirty/ero magazines or something?" said Satoru.

"It was an adult. He kicked a box, like he was angry" said Hinazuki.

"Shall we open it? Hopefully it's just ero magazines" said Kenya. He emptied a backpack from Hinazuki's fellow squatter. Out came a pressurized spray, rope, a flashlight, gloves, a ski mask, rubber boots, and duct tape. The roll of duct tape rolled over to Satoru.

"What is this?" said Hiromi. Satoru realized it was the equipment of the serial killer. "We can't stay in the bus" he thought. Despite all his efforts, they were still in the center of the murder loop.

"We have to get out of here. We can't let a pervert find her" said Satoru.

"Satoru… do you have a plan B?" said Kenya.

"I do" said Satoru smiling.

"Okay. Then let's pull up the stakes" said Hiromi.

The gang started packing all the stuff that was brought in over the last few days. Satoru made note of the footprint of the killer. If possible, he should come back to photograph it. Satoru opened up the kicked box. There was a briquette. Did this belong to the criminal? He thought of several ways the criminal could have burned someone to death. "On a separate time, he nearly did it to Airi-kun" he thought.

"Dammit!" said Satoru, ripping duct tape from boxes in frustration. By the time he got his cool back, the packing was done.

"Too bad. It was a good hideout" said Hiromi.

"A hideout a stranger enters in the middle of the night is a bad one" said Kenya.

"Yeah" said Satoru. "Right now we need to get Hinazuki away from the loop of murders even by force. Through our action, the future is changing" he thought. Satoru put the heavy stove on a sled.

The children arrived at the Fujinuma house. "Satoru… this is your plan B?" said Kenya, not entirely impressed.

"Yup. It's straightforward" said Satoru. Before Kenya could protest, he gave a knock on the unlocked door and opened it. "I'm home"

"Welcome back" said Satoru's mom, Fujinuma Sachiko.

"Good evening" said Kenya, stepping forward. Hiromi and Hinazuki both stepped followed him into the light and bowed.

"Satoru, explain" said Sachiko.

Satoru reached back and grabbed Hinazuki's hand. "This is what happened if I didn't abandon her" he said.

Sachiko reached a hand out. Hinazuki closed her eyes and flinched. Sachiko patted the red clad girl. "Well done kids" said Sachiko.

"That's what I'd thought you'd say. Although I figured I'd get chewed out first" said Satoru. Satoru realized he said the other part out loud.

'I wouldn't scold you for this. You did it for a friend" said Sachiko. She turned on a stove.

"I noticed this smell when I opened the door" said Satoru.

"I figured you would be home soon and I didn't know how many guests we would have, so I made curry" said Sachiko.

"Was I that transparent?" thought Satoru.

Sachiko set the table and distributed the curry and rice. It was delicious, if a tad little bit spicier than Fujinuma-san intended. Hinazuki gave back the empty bento once they were finished with dinner. "Well, leave the rest to me. I don't mean the dishes by the way" said Sachiko.

"I know" said Satoru.

"See you" said Hiromi and Kenya, waving.

"See you" said Satoru.

Sachiko made a phone call. "Hello? This is Fujinuma Satoru's mother. Yashiro-sensei, Satoru and Kayo have come back to my house" said Sachiko.

"Is that so? That's great. I figured as much" said Yashiro-sensei.

"Will Kayo-chan have to be sent to an orphanage somewhere?" said Sachiko.

"That's a good question. I couldn't see Kayo's mother. But I have a favor to ask you Fujinuma-san" said Yashiro-sensei.

"Ok. Tomorrow at 7:00" said Sachiko. She ended the phone conversation. "Kayo-chan, you can stay the night here. You just need to tell me your mother knows and we can take your word for it" The kids nodded as the finished the dishes.

"Nice to meet you. I apologize for calling at night. I'm a teacher at Mikoto Elementary, Yashiro Gaku. I'm calling about Kayo-chan" said Yashiro-sensei, opening another phone conversation.

Kilometers away, Satoru was entertaining Hinazuki Kayo with some manga. "He's called Wonder Guy. Cool, right?" said Satoru with a laugh.

"Oh…" said Hinazuki, trying to follow. It wasn't that she had no interest. It was possible she wasn't following well due to not reading any manga when she grew up. There was also the fact that she had trouble sleeping last night. Most likely was the fact that Satoru started with volume 8 and she didn't recognize anytime a civilian in the plot was referred to by name.

"One of you take a bath" said Sachiko.

"You can go first" said Satoru.

"OK, but…" said Hinazuki. She sniffed her shirt. Hinazuki had been wearing the same thing for several days. It should not have a smell though, since she was in the cold most of the time with only a blanket and a lamp for warmth.

"Why don't we take a bath together?" said Sachiko.

In the bathroom, Sachiko put her ponytail into a knot. "Kayo-chan, shall I wash your hair?" She said.

"I can do it myself" said Hinazuki.

"That's all right, allright. I can do it" said Sachiko.

Satoru listened to his mother playing hairdresser for Hinazuki. Suddenly, they started giggling. Satoru's mind wandered before he immediately stopped himself. "Get a grip. You're 29" he thought. Satoru decided to prepare some hot chocolate. Hinazuki and Sachiko finished their bath. They came in with pajamas and wet hair. Hinazuki grabbed a hot chocolate. "It sounded like you were having a good time" said Satoru.

"Yeah. It was warm" said Hinazuki.

"I see" said Satoru. He noticed Hinazuki's pajamas were designed to be loosely fitting, but they did approximately fit. "Huh? Those pajamas…" said Satoru.

"Yeah. I brought them beforehand. I'm surprised the bathroom thing didn't force r hand a day earlier" said Satoru's mom. Apparently, she knew more or less the whole time. It was one thing with Kenya noticing something was off in the past few weeks and Satoru's alterations this time caused Kenya to make a different decision he sitting on the fence about, to confront Satoru over his determination. It was another thing for his other friend Kazu to make one guess that was close to his intentions.

But Satoru's mom anticipated Satoru multiple times since the time he took Hinazuki to the forest to see the tree. There was one entity which perfectly fit this. "Yokai…" thought Satoru.

Later the group was setting up bed. "Use this sheet. It's washed" said Sachiko.

"Satoru, that's sloppy. Pull that end more" said Hinazuki.

"It feels like a class trip. Which reminds me, the night view from Mt Hakodake is great" said Satoru, remembering another trip. He would only see Kenya three more times after that. And he even drifted from Kazu during the final year of middle school. This trip was one of the few moments of elementary school after the murderers when he felt not merely pleasure, but excited and alive. "Wait a minute" thought Satoru. Something wasn't consistent.

"You've never been to Hakodake!" said Satoru's mom, Sachiko.

"Crap!" thought Satoru. His mom mentally put together that before he did. "I mean, I've seen it in a picture before" said Satoru, backtracking.

"Hmmm…?" said Sachiko. She thought about it for less than a minute before realizing that a photo was the only explanation that made sense. It's not like Satoru would have access to a VHS or Beta of Hakodake. The only thing odd was that his comment on a class trip wasn't well connected to a photo, but people's mind can wander mid conversation without an obvious connection to the conversation partner.

"Well, lights out" said Sachiko.

"Ok" said the children, getting into the large mattress they were using for a bed.

"Goodnight" said Sachiko.

"Goodnight" said the kids.

Sachiko went into the mat bed thing. She closed her eyes and the children looked at her. Three minutes passed. Satoru thought about the endgame. It was here wasn't it? Sachiko opened her eyes. "Am I in the way here" said Sachiko rhetorically referring to her position between the children with a third of a meter of space on both sides.

"Yeah" said Satoru.

"Not really" said Hinazuki, pulling up blushing.

Satoru was embarrassed and annoyed with himself. He said that out loud. "You said 'yeah'?" said Sachiko. She gave a small punch to Satoru's forehead.

"What was that for?" said Satoru. He already knew he said his thought out loud.

"Shut up, sheesh" said Sachiko.

Hinazuki giggled. "Are you an idiot?" said Hinazuki.

March 5th 1988

Satoru woke up with some disorientation. He remembered the brought a new guest. "Good morning" said Satoru.

"Good morning" said Hinazuki, sounding even more tired.

"Good morning. Satoru, Kayo-chan, eat it while it's hot" said Sachiko.

The children motioned towards the table. Hinazuki set her eyes on one set. There were bacon, eggs, and noodles on the main plate. A small plate with fruit slices. The third thing was some steaming hot soup. The last time Hinazuki Akemi put this much effort into a meal for the family was… five years ago. Hinazuki thought more about a typical breakfast for her was a simple slice of buttered break. Not bad, but she did it herself since her mother couldn't care less. In fact, last week she was able to avoid dinner by stealing some loose change and buying cup noodles. Again, the taste wasn't actually bad, but it was lonely. Hinazuki started to cry.

Satoru was at a loss on what to do. Sachiko placed her hands on Hinazuki's shoulders. A household meal doesn't have to be so cold and distant.

An hour later at the Hinazuki household, Hinazuki Akemi decided to take her anger out on some of Hinazuki Kayo's school stuff, like a workbook and pencils. There was no logical reason any of it was responsible for her daughter's absence, but there wasn't a need for logic. The doorbell rang.

"Oka-san…" said Hinazuki Kayo. The mother immediately opened the door.

"Kayo! Where have you been for the last few days? You…"


End file.
